Enerquip has been building sanitary heating and cooling equipment for the dairy industry since 1985. Top dairy producers, and the engineering firms that support them, trust in Enerquip for their critical heating and cooling needs. “Our cheese and whey products travel both nationally and worldwide, so we understand the importance of delivering quality reliable products with excellent customer service. Enerquip checks all those boxes for us.” Luke Mullins, Mullins Cheese

With decades of experience, Enerquip’s resourceful team can provide you with sizing and design selection assistance to specifically meet your process needs. Enerquip’s skilled sales engineers use state-of-the-art modeling software to recommend the right equipment for each heating or cooling application.

Enerquip’s Heating and Cooling Solutions for the Dairy Industry

Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers – Heat exchangers are widely used in the dairy industry for various applications such as heating, cooling, pasteurization, and sterilization of dairy products.

Vapor Condensers – Vapor condensers cool a vapor to the point where it condenses back into a liquid. This liquid can then be recycled back into the production process.

Waste Heat Economizers – Don’t let valuable heat escape your facility. From increasing efficiency to conserving resources and reducing waste, waste heat recovery can make a big difference for your facility.

Thermal Fluid Heaters – In a closed loop system, these industrial heaters transfer heat energy to a target material or process.

Sanitary Bare Coil Tank Heating Coils – These coils are used to heat and regulate the temperature of tanks filled with stored materials.

Bayonet Heaters – These heaters heat product while being completely immersed in a tank fluids.

Steam Generators – Thermal fluid steam generators are a perfect solution for customers that need steam for their facility but don’t want to spend the capital for a large-scale boiler operation.

Heat Exchangers for the Dairy Industry

Enerquip is a leading supplier of sanitary stainless-steel shell and tube heat exchangers, providing solutions for applications with the toughest operating and regulatory requirements. That’s why leading Clean-in-Place (CIP) suppliers in the United States have standardized on Enerquip’s heat exchangers for the cleaning systems due to our quality and ability to consistently meet their sanitary requirements and delivery expectations.

Heat plays a critical role in the dairy industry, affecting both quality and taste. When working with heat sensitive products, it’s important that your exchanger is sized properly for your system and application requirements.

Dairy products require heat treatment for several reasons including inactivating bacteria and prolonging shelf life. In this process, heat transfer must be rapid to be effective. To avoid damage to the taste and nutritional value during that rapid process, our sales engineers and design experts can help you customize your exchanger to the specific size your product requires, rather than purchasing by surface area alone.

3-A Compliant Heat Exchangers

Exchangers that are 3-A compliant follow strict standards for food and beverage processes to ensure products that pass through the equipment are safe for human consumption. 3-A is the finish requirement for dairy applications.

Enerquip participates in 3-A required third party verifications and is proud to be certified to fabricate heat exchangers to standard number 12-08. To ensure we stay current on 3-A standards for product safety, Enerquip experts sit on workgroups for standards development.

Enerquip’s 3-A shell and tube heat exchangers have finish requirements of 32Ra or better, including 316L stainless steel SA-213 seamless tubing. For easy, thorough cleanability, the gasket is also exposed.

Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger Applications

Product Heaters & Coolers

Enerquip heat exchangers are used in thermal systems for a wide variety of heating and cooling applications in the dairy industry. This includes the processing of liquids, creams, and yogurts, and more challenging applications like the production of whey protein concentrate and other viscous heat-sensitive products.

One common use of shell and tube exchangers in these industries is for pasteurization. Pasteurization in the dairy industry is a heat treatment which reduces the presence of harmful bacteria in certain foods to make them safe for consumption as well as to extend their shelf life.

Products such as liquid and dried eggs, milk, cream, yogurt and ice cream and, in some cases meat, are often surface pasteurized with steam or hot water, using a shell and tube exchanger directly, or in addition to a hold tube in an HTST (high temperature short time) system. The product is then cooled back down quickly to prevent a negative impact to texture or flavor, and to prepare it for packaging.

Clean-In-Place Heaters

One of the most critical steps in dairy processing is the cleaning and sanitization of the processing plant. Proper cleaning and sanitization is essential to ensure the health and safety of manufacturers and consumers. One preferred equipment cleaning strategies throughout the industry is the Clean-in-Place (CIP) Method.

Why a CIP system in dairy?

To meet the necessary sanitation requirements, dairies will often employ CIP systems in their process. The purpose of a CIP system is to remove product residues and microorganisms from inside tanks, pipes, vessels, and process equipment without requiring disassembly.

Food fluids (milk, sauces, etc.) that have been heat treated with equipment have to be thoroughly flushed from that equipment at the end of every processed batch with adequate cleaning procedures. If surfaces are not perfectly clean, future batches become at risk of cross contamination, and heat exchange efficiency will be compromised.

CIP systems rely on steam or hot water as a heating media for their solutions. Enerquip shell and tube heat exchangers heat this solution as it circulates through the tubes, typically to approximately 185F. The stainless steel CIP heaters are normally designed to the same sanitary standard and with the same surface finish as the equipment that is being cleaned.

CIP systems offer many benefits to the production process.

They ensure optimal cleaning results with the lowest consumption of water. In many cases, the solution from the final rinse can be used again for the next cycle’s pre-rinse. CIP systems also allow for the processing plant to maintain operation during cleaning. While one part of the plant is cleaned, other areas can continue to produce product. This process maximizes production and minimizes labor. Investing in a CIP heater ensures your plant’s cleaning operations are performed consistently in order to meet required degrees of sanitation.

Have questions about a thermal solution for your dairy processing application? Contact us or request a quote today.