Dairy Plant Water Conservation by CIP System Redesign and Loadout of Cow Drinkable High BOD Water

Agriculture/Environmental Science: 3rd Place (The Ohio State University Denman Undergraduate Research Forum)Snowville Creamery is a sustainable dairy processing plant which prides itself on providing products that are as close to natural as possible. As production quantities grow, so does the plant’s water usage and waste. All drained wastewater is spray irrigated to the pastures, and since the farm raises exclusively grass fed cattle, it is essential to minimize the quantity of the wastewater as well as its biological oxygen demand (BOD) and concentration of suspended solids. Previously, all cleaning processes utilized fresh city water with no reuse. The goal of this study was to discover and implement methods of water reuse and repurposing for dairy plants. By benchmarking water usage at various points, it was possible to quantify and analyze required water volumes in each process. First, a recirculation system was established for the milk separator. Additionally, a high BOD segregation collection system was designed to capture the established “Clean in Place” (CIP) pre-rinse water, as well as usable water from the pasteurizer and Nanofiltration CIP systems to be used as a nutritious drinking source for the cows. The remaining CIP steps were also redesigned to reduce water usage from 8 to 2.6 times the circuit volume of a given processing component. The total projected water savings from all sources are 23,500 gallons per week for a savings of $8,070 per year. Along with the implementation and programming of these systems with PLC automation, full autoCAD documentation of the Creamery P&ID and schematic was designed and updated. These water conservation methods can be applied to other dairy or food processing plants for water conservation and savings.Snowville Creamery, Warren TaylorAcademic Major: Food, Agricultural, and Biological EngineeringAcademic Major: Mechanical Engineerin