IDM ¦ Site Report
startup of the equipment went like clockwork.
“Since neither Milkron nor Krones
has an office in Norway, the materials and
the entire team had to be 'imported'. Of
course, that required an incredible amount
of planning, coordination, and logistics.
But they managed it extremely well,” says
a satisfied Mårten Haukjem. The project required
a considerable amount of material:
Milkron installed more than 15 kilometers
of stainless steel pipe to carry milk, finished
product, water, and heat transfer media
between the 54 tanks.
Milkron also brought other Krones subsidiaries
on board for equipping the dairy with
the necessary process technology.
• HST delivered the homogenizer, which is
used to partially homogenize 8,000 liters
of fresh milk per hour at a pressure
of 200 bar.
• Evoguard supplied almost all of the valves
– 1,107 in all. What made this delivery
special is that the delivery included twelve
valve manifolds of various sizes, which
Evoguard designed and built precisely to
TINE's specifications. That also included
AS interface bus communication between
the valves and the higher-level controllers.
Before delivering the valve manifolds,
Evoguard subjected them to a Factory Acceptance
Test at its Nittenau plant in collaboration
with TINE specialists. Thus, they
could ensure and document compliance
with the customer's specifications and
proper functioning of the valves before
they shipped to Norway.
• For the process control system, TINE wanted
an automation solution that was both
state-of-the-art and energy-efficient – and
they chose Botec F1 from Syskron. The
system monitors and controls the entire
production process. In addition, TINE's existing
IT environment was fully integrated
and interfaces were established to almost
all systems. Thus, data on energy and
media consumption can be called up and
displayed through Botec. In addition, order
handling can either be done through
From raw milk reception to transfer to the filler
At TINE's new dairy plant in Bergen, raw milk
receiving happens behind gates 49 and 50.
The milk tankers begin arriving in the early afternoon.
Milk collected from local dairy farms
is offloaded on two receiving lanes, pumped
from the tractor and trailer ends simultaneously.
The milk first flows down into the receiving
silo, where it is de-aerated and cooled to
two degrees Celsius. It is then pumped upward,
into one of the three 100,000-liter raw milk
tanks located above the receiving silo.
The milk then enters the hygienic section of
the plant. After being heated to 55 degrees Celsius, it travels through a separator, which separates
the cream from the milk. The fat content desired for the final product is set, this part of the milk
is homogenized, and then mixed back in with the rest of the milk collected. The milk pasteurizer
can process up to 25,000 liters per hour. The partial homogenizer handles 6,000 to 8,000 liters
per hour. The excess fat is transferred to one of five cream tanks to later be used for producing
whipping cream.
The milk itself is heated to 74 degrees Celsius in a heat exchanger, and then immediately chilled
again in a regenerative heat exchange process. It is chilled down to two degrees Celsius using icewater
The homogenizer from HST is used
to partially homogenize fresh milk
cooling and then transferred to one of five tanks. Besides the 10 tanks for dairy products,
the warehouse also holds four tanks for fruit juice production.
An Evoguard valve manifold controls the transfer of the milk, cream, and juice to the correct
one of five fillers – for cartons, large containers, or bag-in-box containers. Milkron also installed two
CIP systems for cleaning the lines – one for the raw milk and one for pasteurized products. TINE's
specifications required hot-water sterilization at 80 degrees Celsius.
In order to keep waste to a minimum, the milk that is used for flushing the system at the start of
the CIP process is heated and made available to farmers to use as animal feed. The mixed phases
that arise during startup, flushing, and product changeovers are also collected, concentrated in a
reverse osmosis process, and then dosed into the pasteurizer's buffer tank.
the existing system or directly within Botec
(read more on page 25).
• Parent company Krones collaborated with
TINE to design a complete energy concept
for the new dairy plant, using a threestage
system comprising heat pumps and
cooling units. The heart of the system is a
hybrid high-temperature heat pump that
can generate very high temperatures with
a relatively low level of pressure.
Outstanding sustainability
concept
“Sustainability is a top priority for TINE. To
us, sustainability means efficient, prudent
use of raw materials, energy, and water
across all stages of production. Our target
of no more than 0.5 raw materials waste
is ambitious – but we will achieve it,” says
Mårten Haukjem. “We also want to operate
as energy-efficiently as possible.”
Together with Krones, TINE developed
a sophisticated energy concept that addresses
consumption across the production
processes as well as building services.
At the concept's core lies a heat pump
system with two temperature levels – 67
and 95 degrees Celsius – for hot water.
The heat pumps use the process heat from
the plant's cooling and compressed air systems.
“We have a relatively complex energy
network. The heat pumps enable us
to use process heat to generate hot water,
heat the building, or melt ice and snow,”
says Mårten Haukjem.
The plant's closed-loop systems for water
and dry cooling system mean that no
fresh water is needed for heating and cooling
operations. Four exterior water tanks
– each with a capacity of 130,000 liters
– serve as a water storage system. Krones
coordinated all of the points of contact and
supplied the prefabricated utilities on skids.
Milkron took care of pipe installation and
hook-ups.
The concept has paid off. With it, TINE
has reduced energy consumption by 40
percent overall – earning the company
recognition by the European Heat Pump
Association. Besides the heat pumps, the
dairy also has 6,000 square meters of solar
panels installed on its roof to generate and
store backup power.
Ahead of schedule
This was the first time TINE had entrusted
the Krones Group with the en-
24 · November/December 2020 ¦ international-dairy.com
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