Heat Recovery from Milk
Can you lower your electricity bills while keeping the milk you produce at a high quality? Yes — through pre-cooling the milk and recovering heat from the cooling process. Margo offers a tube-in-tube pre-cooler and a heat exchanger, both made of stainless steel.
Lower Power Use, More Milk
Depending on the size of your dairy herd, you can save on electricity bills by pre-cooling the milk and recovering heat from the refrigerant. Warm milk heats the water — directly (pre-cooler) or indirectly (heat exchanger) — and reduces power use during cooling.
Margo recommends heat exchangers for farms producing around 500 liters of milk per collection and up. Medium and large farms can install both a tube-in-tube pre-cooler and a heat exchanger.
Published research results from the Institute of Technology and Life Sciences in Falenty, Poznań Branch, confirmed that implementing milk pre-cooling systems reduces energy use during milk cooling by around 50%.
Results from Selected Farms
Electricity use on dairy farms cooling milk — comparing traditional cooling to cooling with a pre-cooler, according to the Institute of Technology and Life Sciences, Poznań Branch.
How Does the Pre-Cooler Work?
The tube-in-tube pre-cooler is installed next to pipeline milking systems. It's a simple device made of two concentric tubes — milk flowing through the inner tube gives off heat to water flowing through the outer tube. The resulting warm water can be used to water the cows, wash equipment, or for heating.
Cold water flows in the opposite direction to the incoming warm milk. The unit is installed after the milk pump, directly above the milk tank — the pre-cooled milk then enters the cooler and is cooled further to the target temperature.
Depending on the milk yield, units can be combined into larger systems. Once installed, the pre-cooler is maintenance-free — it's washed automatically by the milking system's wash cycle, and the acid-resistant steel build guarantees many years of trouble-free operation.
Limescale only starts forming above 60°C, and the water in the unit never reaches that temperature — so scale buildup isn't an issue in practice. Washing after each use is still recommended.
Tube-in-Tube Pre-Cooler — Nothing But Benefits
Device Parameters
- Initial milk temperature: 34°C
- Milk temperature after the pre-cooler: 18–20°C
- Initial water temperature: 10°C
- Final water temperature: 16–20°C
- Milk and water flow should be regulated with valves
- Standard coil diameter: 120 cm
- Recommended pre-cooler tube length: 24 m
Tube length and diameter (recommended pre-cooler length is 24 m) and the milk flow time — the longer the flow time, the faster the heat loss and the better the heat exchange.
Construction: stainless steel tube for water, food-grade stainless steel tube for milk. We manufacture tube sizes (mm): 22/34, 25/34, 28/40, 34/48, 40/54, 52/69.
Installation
We Manufacture the Tube-in-Tube in Two Versions
Enclosed Version
Available at extra cost — stainless steel cladding
Open Version (Coil)
Standard version
Available Capacities and Prices
This product is offered in the variants below, depending on the amount of milk flowing per hour:
| Milk Tube Diameter [mm] | Water Tube Diameter [mm] | Tube Length [m] | Net Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22, 25, 28, 34 | 48 | 12 | PLN 5,808.00 |
| 22, 25, 28, 34 | 48 | 18 | PLN 7,920.00 |
| 22, 25, 28, 34 | 48 | 24 | PLN 9,600.00 |
| 34 or 41 | 60 | 12 | PLN 6,390.00 |
| 34 or 41 | 60 | 18 | PLN 8,710.00 |
| 34 or 41 | 60 | 24 | PLN 10,560.00 |
Ask About the Tube-in-Tube Pre-Cooler
We'll help you choose the right capacity and version for your herd size.
Ask for a Price Call: +48 29 769 09 89