Cooling milk is a process that removes a significant amount of thermal energy from the raw material — on a typical farm, we’re talking about real kilowatts of heat that normally just escape into the surroundings along with the refrigeration unit’s work. The tube-in-tube system lets you recover that energy and reuse it.
How heat recovery works
The principle is simple: before the milk reaches the main tank, it flows through a tube-in-tube heat exchanger, where it gives up some of its temperature to cold water flowing in the opposite direction. The effect is twofold — the milk enters the cooler already partly cooled (which takes the load off the refrigeration unit and shortens the final cooling time), and the water heated this way goes into a buffer tank, where it can be used, for example, to wash the milking installation or as domestic hot water on the farm.
Benefits of implementation
- Lower energy consumption by the refrigeration unit — milk reaches the tank already pre-cooled
- Free domestic hot water, with no extra boiler or heater needed
- Shorter time to fully cool a batch of milk
- Return on investment spread across energy savings in subsequent years of operation
Who this solution is for
This system works best on farms with a regular, daily milking rhythm, where the flow of milk and the demand for hot water (e.g. for washing) occur around the same time. The installation is compatible with both new and existing coolers — all it takes is a correctly designed heat-exchange unit.
You’ll find a full technical description of our solution, with installation diagrams, on our milk heat recovery page. Feel free to get in touch too — we’ll help you assess whether the investment would pay off on your farm.