Sustainability in the Australian Dairy Industry
How university researchers and industry partners are shaping the future of dairy.
One of the most significant challenges manufacturers the Australian dairy industry face is managing new technological advances. While there is much potential for time and cost saving, improving yield and process improvement, many companies struggle to maintain the research and development skills to make the most of this potential. That’s where researchers can help.
The Dairy Innovation Hub set out to work with manufacturers and to help solve the industry’s environmental problems by scanning new technologies, including those that can add value to by-product streams from dairy manufacturing and reduce power, water and chemical consumption.
Dr George Chen and Professor Sandra Kentish from the University of Melbourne have been instrumental in researching the technologies to assist environmental and business sustainability Working to determine what kind of technology would be feasible, they’ve then also assessed the factory settings and economic conditions that would make it viable to adopt new technology.
Their technology scans involve cross-industry comparisons and testing new technology.
“We’ve come comparison tests with the desalination industry for example, membrane distillation and capacitive deionisation for recovery of salt and charged proteins from dairy solutions.” George explains.
Working with industry partners means that researchers can understand industry needs with direct access to samples, factories and manufacturing expertise. Dairy Australia Sustainability manager Ian Olmstead says, “being able to work together collaboratively to find pathways for improving Australian knowledge and expertise, which can benefit the dairy industry is one of the best aspects of the Dairy Innovation Hub program.”
Notable outcomes have included new methods for treating acid whey. This byproduct contains valuable lactose and protein but can’t be spray-dried unless the concentrations of calcium and lactic acid can be reduced. The work found broad adoption of nanofiltration and electrodialysis to produce whey powder from acid whey could generate over $30 million of annual revenue across the Australian dairy industry.
The Hub also identified ways to reduce brine treatment and disposal costs, which cost the Victorian industry over $20 million per annum. Pilot scale electrodialysis with bipolar membranes (EDBM) trials offered a pathway to reduce these costs. Successful adoption could benefit dairy processors but also to the local community, through reductions in the environmental discharge of sodium.
We found that nanofiltration (NF) was a cost-effective method to remove around 30% of the lactic acid and 40-60% of the salt from acid whey. Further reducations required electrodialysis, so we tested how to approach this using pilot scales. The use of NF as an intermediate step to reduce the size of the final ED unit resulted in lower capital and energy costs. The resulting concentrate was readily spray dried to provide a non-sticky powder with an ash and moisture content of less than 4%. - George Chen
Work with the Dairy Innovation Hub has been able to systematically assess technologies at a greater depth than what you would typically find in a manufacturing environment, where companies face production pressure. Working with manufacturing feedstocks, process operating and cost constraints from manufacturers, the pilot scale studies were design to be applicable at large scale. Dr Olmstead also described the quality of the work as exceptional and the curiosity of the researchers finding new ways to approach a given problem as a real strength.
“Another angle we considered was whether we could generate the cleaning chemicals needed by the industry using electrodialysis with bipolar membranes (EDBM),” said George. “Salt was converted into sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid, both chemicals that can be utilised by dairy processors.”
Reducing energy and water demand was a further target, as pressure exchangers and turbochargers were assessed for their potential to reduce factory demand. These technologies are commonly used in desalination facilities, to recover pressure energy from nanofiltration and reverse osmosis processes. The team considered forward osmosis as a further mechanism to reduce the energy costs associated with product concentration and evaporation. This included considering membranes emerging on the market that are made from optimised materials that can result in greater flux for a given transmembrane pressure.
“Other industries could also benefit from such advances and this research. There are opportunities for valorisation of the potassium, calcium and phosphate present in whey processes for use in other processes – and this can translate across industries and sectors.” - Prof Sandra Kentish.
The findings are applicable to the partner organisations, who helped drive the direction of the research, but also to the broader community of smaller dairy producers. Manufacturers, producers and the dairy industry community face similar pressing sustainability issues, so adding value to by-product streams can have an impact across the broader sector and beyond.
Scientific papers summarising the findings from across the ARC Dairy Innovation Hub and the Dairy Innovation Hub are available to the broader industry, highlighting the importance of access to this research to influence industry outcomes across themes including environmental and business sustainability, process innovation ingredient innovation and more. Dairy Australia, the Dairy Innovation Hub and other partners have also co-invested in a Dairy Manufacturing Workforce Webinar series to help promote this information across the sector. With key presentations from Dairy Hub researchers including Dr George Chen, Dr Lydia Ong and Dr Enrico Hadde, manufacturers can learn more.
Co-investing in the Dairy Manufacturing Workforce Webinar series was a key benefit to strengthen the reach and engagement of the Dairy Innovation Hub. - Dr Ian Olmstead.
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