NIZO’s Process Scan could boost infant formula production by 100,000 tons a year

NIZO food research’s Process Scan has already helped United Dairymen of Arizona (UDA) and Dairy Innovation Australia Ltd (DIAL) increase their dairy powder and infant formula production.

NIZO’s Process Scan enables dairy producers to increase production capacity by 10% on average while maintaining optimum product properties and without increasing fixed costs. It is one of the best options available to dairy companies looking to step up production. Further rollout could boost total world production by 100,000 tons per year.

The world infant formula market has an estimated volume of at least one million tons, with a value of nearly 35 billion USD and growing, due to rising incomes especially in emerging markets.

NIZO ‘s Process Scan is based on a detailed understanding of drying behavior, stickiness and protein denaturation kinetics combined with research into process-product interactions in evaporators and dryers. This enables powder producers to optimize throughput and energy use while retaining the very best product properties. With Process Scan, manufacturers go from Best Proven Practice to Best Possible Practice. The results include extended run times, prevention of fouling, increased process efficiency and improved product quality.

NIZO’s Process Scan was used to resolve powder build-up in a plant run by UDA, whose CEO, Keith Murfield, said: “NIZO’s Process Scan reduced our cleaning times, enabling us to increase our output of high-quality powder at reduced costs.”

DIAL works with local dairy processors to find solutions using NIZO’s predictive modeling tools. DIAL’s Process performance manager, Mike Weeks, said the company had “a major success early on” using these tools to help a dairy powder producer. “We applied lessons from the heating profile from one powder plant that successfully made a very difficult spec product. We converted that to another higher-capacity plant for the same company with some equipment modifications. This resulted in a significant capacity increase.”

For more information and a video about NIZO’s Process Scan, go to: www.nizo.com/capacity.