Water saving in Arla Dairy

New water saving technology from EUROWATER reduces water waste by more than 75% to the benefit of both the dairy's competitiveness and the environment.

The nearby waterworks supplies the dairy with clean drinking water. Dairy production requires clean water in various qualities; drinking water quality is insufficient. The largest volume of water - approximately 90,000 m³ per year - is used for a number of purposes: condenser, cooling water for homogenisator, and heat exchangers for pasteurisation equipment and centrifugal separators. Here, it is important that the water is soft in order to prevent calcium deposits.

An annual water volume of approximately 5,000 m³ of the softened water is further treated and used as make-up water for steam boiler, laboratory use, and internal cooling on filling machine. Here, it is important that the water is demineralized, i.e. free of salts. This is accomplished in a reverse osmosis system of the type RO-PLUS, characterized by a particularly high water recovery.

Annually, the water saving totals approximately 5,500 cubic metres. Add to this saving on consumption of salt and energy, which is affected positively by all the modernization measures.