Energy Saving Milk Cooling Unit Using Natural Cold and Low Temperature Coolants

Abstract

Improving the energy efficiency of equipment for dairy farms is one of the most important tasks in the agriculture. A promising direction for further improving the energy efficiency of existing systems is the use of environmentally friendly refrigerants with a low freezing point (low-temperature coolants) and the potential of natural cold directly. One of the technological factors for the introduction of such systems in farms is the cooling of milk without freezing an "ice water", which requires fundamentally new technical solutions. (Research purpose) The research purpose is in increasing the energy efficiency of milk cooling using natural cold and eco-salt for the developed module. (Materials and methods) The technical characteristics of the developed module were studied in order to identify the effectiveness of primary milk cooling due to the potential of outdoor air with the possibility of further implementation of this system in farms. (Results and discussion) The article presents the results of experimental studies of an energy-saving module developed in VIM for milk cooling using natural cold and low-temperature coolants. The module is a pre-cooling unit for milk, where a closed loop with a low-temperature coolant is used instead of ground water, which allows cooling milk through the potential of external air. The article presents the dependence of the efficiency of milk cooling on the configuration of equipment and the potential of natural cold. (Conclusions) The energy efficiency of the developed milk cooling system for the Central Russia allows reducing the electricity consumption for cooling of 1 ton of milk by 15-17 kilowatt-hours, which on average will reduce financial costs by 50 percent. The introduction of a developed energy-saving module to existing cooling systems in dairy farms is proposed.