A Large Northern European Dairy Producer

Challenge: Reduce Energy Use and Increase Throughput for Resource Efficiency

A Northern European dairy producer, and large cooperative owned by more than 8,000 milk producers, is a major dairy industry player. Founded more than a century ago, this company continually works to minimize the environmental impact of its operations and efficiently use its resources.

The facility highlighted is a key supplier of milk-based ingredients to global food and beverage producers. It is one of six production facilities the company owns and operates. The site processes 500,000 tons of milk per year – producing over 63,000 tons of whey protein concentrate, over 14,000 tons of caseinate, 600 tons of hydrolyzed protein and over 1,000 tons of milk mineral.

Management wanted their caseinate--a milk protein used in making plastics, adhesives and some types of cheese and other food products-- production lines to operate more efficiently and consistently.

The dairy producer was challenged with controlling the drying process producing caseinate powder   to consistently meet government regulations. Since powder couldn’t be sold if not dried to the minimum requirement, the company was forced to run its dryers slower to meet standards and avoid waste.

These issues consumed substantial energy and affected product throughput. Therefore, optimizing the drying process controls became a primary focus for the company.

“We stood to increase profit margins dramatically by running the dryers for only the amount of time … so we needed to better identify the areas of inefficiency with our current process control system and look for ways to make significant improvements.”
- Technology Manager

Solution: Closed-loop moisture control predictive model with Soft Sensors® to infer powder moisture

The customer wanted a solution that would increase each line’s capacity, while maintaining product quality and reducing energy usage. After considering competing solutions, the customer worked with Rockwell Automation to improve the overall efficiency of its dryers on the caseinate production lines.

The three dryers and other factors of the process that impacted moisture levels were evaluated. Using the Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Analytics closed-loop predictive and prescriptive capabilities, process control could be tightened to help achieve consistent moisture levels, thereby optimizing line capacity and resource consumption.

The Rockwell Automation solution recommended a closed-loop, moisture-control application to better manage product moisture. This was designed, developed, and deployed based on its FactoryTalk Analytics platform.

The solution utilized Soft Sensor® models to provide in-line, inferential powder moisture (quality) measurements in real-time. By utilizing this sensor data throughout the line, model-based closed-loop controls could respond in a predictive fashion, significantly reducing moisture variability, raising dryer throughput, and reducing the energy needed to dry the casein.

Results: Rockwell Automation Delivers Increased Capacity, Reduced Costs

The results of the FactoryTalk Analytics solution at the facility’s caseinate lines (3 x spray towers) were beyond expectations. The customer achieved up to a 42% reduction in quality variability and a 0.12-0.38% increase in average moisture content. In addition, they also achieved a 6–15.8% increase in production throughput.

Thereafter, the Northern European milk producer successfully deployed a total of 19 FactoryTalk Analytics closed-loop solutions throughout its ingredient plants.

“Rockwell Automation’s knowledge and model-based process control tools give us exactly the competitive edge we need to maintain productivity and profitability in this difficult economy,” said the dairy producer’s technology manager. “Rockwell Automation delivers what they promise.”