The dairy processing sector has proven to be a committed adopter of energy saving technologies over the years. To date, evolving energy conserving measures have been incorporated in virtually all traditional unit processes deployed in dairy processeswithout compromising food safety and security. Emerging milder processing technologies with their promise of lower energy consumption require further innovation to satisfy the food safety equivalence of conventional pasteurisation. Presently, the focus is very much on developments with respect to the utility demands of dairy processors. Opportunities are opening up to expand combined heat and power (CHP) units to encompass trigeneration (i.e. refrigeration in addition to heat, electricity generation) bycombining heat pumps which exploit the principles of absorption refrigeration in conjunction with CHP to transform low-grade waste energy into useful process heat. Dairy plants with their extensive buildings are well suited to maximise the recovery of solar energy using photovoltaic cells and the energy saving possibilities afforded by converting to LED lighting. Recent research shows that shelf-life of milk concentrates can be substantially extended using a select combination of unit processes thus facilitating opportunistic 'just-in-time' business-to-business trade without recourse to expending further energy by having to dry the concentrates.
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