Application of Exergy Analysis on the Dairy Industry

Abstract

The dairy industry ranks fifth among the most energy-intensive industries after oil, chemical, pulp and paper mill, and iron and steel making industries. The majority of energy demand in the dairy processing sector is still provided by fossil-based fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas for heat and electricity generation. Hence, the dairy industry has a nontrivial contribution to the pollutant emissions like COx, SOx, NOx, CxHy, soot, ash, and organic compounds as a result of fossil fuel combustion which imposes reducing the energy demand and increasing the process efficiency. Exergy analysis and its extensions are famous tools used regarded extensively for analyzing and optimizing the various energy-intensive operations from the sustainability and efficiency viewpoint. This study has evaluated the exergetic efficiency and exergy destruction rate for each component in a yoghurt drink production plant. The major exergy destruction rate was found in the boiler & air compressor combination of the steam generation system, accounting for over 65.45% of the exergy destruction. Therefore, how to reduce the irreversibility rate in this unit is the key point to energy saving and to improving the overall system performance. For future progression, it is strongly suggested to carry out exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental analyses, which are combinations of exergy with economics and environment, to obtain useful insights on the real costs and environmental impacts of dairy products processing The result of this research will extend existing knowledge about the exergy of the dairy Industry by investigating the exergy yogurt drink production plan and reducing yogurt production cost by optimizing energy utilization. Being the first study in Sudan it's hoped to promote for similar studies to be carried out.