Target 10 Communicator
February 2011 Edition
NEW GREEN CLEANING™ SYSTEMS PUT THROUGH THEIR PACES
The first commercial Green Cleaning™ systems are being put through their paces on Victorian farms. Green Cleaning™ is a new system to clean milking machines that saves energy, water and chemicals. The automated systems operate at low temperatures, re-use the wash solutions and utilise energy efficient principles to deliver substantial operating cost savings for farmers, providing an effective hedge against rising power prices.
The ‘Green Cleaning’ project was initiated in 2008 to design more environmentally friendly milking machine cleaning systems that use less power, energy and water. The project is being delivered by AgVet Projects on behalf of GippsDairy, and is funded through the Victorian Government’s Sustainability Fund and the Gardiner Foundation.
The project brings together the main dairy equipment manufacturers and the largest dairy chemical manufacturers in Australia. Two of these companies, GEA Farm Technologies (formally Westfalia Surge) and Cleantec - a division of Ecolab, have just established separate sites on Victorian farms to trial their new systems. Milka-Ware also has a site which has been operational for some time. The project team expects a range of Green Cleaning™ options to be available for farmers in March – April 2011.
The new commercial systems are based on an initial prototype unit that was designed, installed and tested by AgVet Projects on a commercial dairy farm in Gippsland over 15 months - from March 2009 to June 2010. This initial work was undertaken to see if a low temperature, re-use system could be used successfully to clean the milking plant. The main components of the systems are shown in the Figure 1.
Figure 1: The main components of the new Green Cleaning™ systems.
The project’s seven industry partners were each given time during this trial period to test potential chemical regimes and work with AgVet Projects to refine their design ideas.
According to Rob Greenall, Manager of the Green Cleaning™ project, this was an important step. It meant that by the end of the trial period, most of the companies involved had successfully tested a chemical regime that was suited to low temperature re-use, and they also had a chance to work through their design issues in a low risk environment.
The project collaborators also had a chance to see how much energy, water and chemicals could be saved by the new system. A large quantity of data was collected from sensors and by logging the computerised control system over the trial period. Physical inspections were also carried out periodically to verify cleanliness of the milking plant and supported the excellent (factory) milk quality results achieved over the trial period.
The results of the trial were impressive. The Green Cleaning trial unit achieved a:
- Greater than 75% reduction in electricity used for heating water for cleaning the milking machine;
- Greater than 65% reduction in electricity costs associated with heating water for cleaning the milking machine;
- 63% reduction in water used in cleaning the milking machine; and
- 10-30% reduction in chemical use.
This equated to savings of 89kWh per day (excluding solar) on the 32 unit Gippsland trial farm. These savings were increased if the solar energy source was taken into consideration; by a further 16kWh per day in times of high solar gain, and by 7kWh in times of low solar gain. This equated to an average daily cost saving of $12.31 and $10.72 respectively in electricity alone.
The project team now believes these figures are conservative. With the wash solutions being used at 45-50°C and only losing 5-8°C during each wash, it seems feasible to use solar energy or waste heat streams in the dairy (from the refrigeration system or vacuum pump) as the sole source of heating, effectively eliminating the cost of heating water for milking machine cleaning. This has not been lost on the commercial sector, with the first commercial versions having minimal requirement for electrical power.
Gabriel Hakim of AgVet Projects has been assisting the commercial companies develop their versions over the past year.
“Although the various designs and features differ between manufacturers, they all aim to significantly reduce the use of energy, water and chemicals,” he said.
“Initially we expect a limited release by two or three manufacturers as a part of a wider scale trial being undertaken on up to 50 Victorian farms. Testing the technology in a range of environments will help the industry understand its limitations and allow the collection of data required to satisfy any remaining regulatory and/or market concerns,” he said.
The limited release will also allow the commercial companies to test and refine their products, as well as train their staff. “At the end of the day, it is going to be these companies that supply, install and service the new systems into the future,” he said.
Although the new commercial systems are still technically under wraps, interested farmers and dairy advisers will be able to get a sneak preview at one of a number of open days being organised as a part of the Green Cleaning project for March to April 2011. Stay tuned for details of these open days in future editions of the Target 10 Communicator.
