Duplex Pasteuriser project for a major Dairy Cooperative

The team at Sycamore Process Engineering has now completed the most recent project for a large European dairy cooperative at one of their sites in Devon, UK. This project included the design, manufacture, and installation of the new Duplex Pasteurisation system that have flow rates of up to 66,000l/hr with the ability to run in series for a 24hr production window.

Members of the sales and design team started working on this project in September 2020 with the contract being awarded soon after that. Our in-house design team started working on the layout of the equipment immediately which supported our client and their chosen construction contractor. During the construction phase of the project this allowed us to assemble the Alfa Laval Heat exchangers, balance tanks, and pump skids which started in January 2021. Upgrades were also made to the existing milk intake bay enhancing product routing and hygiene once the designs had been approved by ourselves and the customer.

The manufacture of the pasteurisers was completed at our workshop in Sparkford, Somerset by our expert team of welder/fabricators. From which they were shipped to the site to be received by our engineers ready to install the new equipment into our customer’s facilities. Once the installation phase of the pasteurisers, which included heating skids, pump modules, and various heat exchangers had been completed, commissioning of the new pasteurisers began and was successfully completed at the end of July 2021. The new plant was then handed over to our customer following this period of commissioning and optimisation, the project will also include a complimentary health check that will be completed before we announce closure to this project.

Working with an organisation that is so environmentally aware as this large dairy cooperative, enabled us to take this into account in the design stage. The ability for us to do this mirrors our own sustainability movement efforts as we strive to operate in a more sustainable manner. This resulted in the Pasteurisers being designed to run off heat energy in the form of hot water provided by their existing CHP plant when available. The ability for this to happen allows our customer to reduce their use of fossil fuels that would usually power the plant, which has obvious environmental impacts as well as financial savings “win win for our client”.

These pasteurisers will be supplying the customers’ existing world class cheese Vat room which we previously designed and installed in 2018. We are pleased that we were again selected as the preferred partner to complete the duplex pasteurisation project that links with the previous works we have completed for them.

We are proud to be able to announce that this project has now been handed over to our customer, with it reinforcing our working relationship with the group. We hope to execute many more successful projects for the cooperative in the future.