1- Getting Started
The milk comes to the balance tank first, the purpose of its arrival here is not to cut off the milk supply on the line. In other words, the milk is taken to the balance tank and its entrance to the pipeline is fixed.
2- 1.Regeneration
The 1st regeneration section of the milk pasteurizer, which is taken with the help of pumps, enters. The milk coming to the 1st regeneration section encounters the milk that has been pasteurized before and has reached high temperature. In this encounter, there is no direct contact since there are plates between two different milks. The temperature of cold milk that encounters pasteurized milk reaches 55oC. The milk that reaches this temperature is sent to the separator by leaving the 1st regeneration.
3- Separator
The reason why the milk is sent to the separator after this stage is that it reaches the optimum temperature for the separation of the cream. The cream of the milk that leaves the 1st regeneration and goes to the separator is separated. (The desired oil rate is obtained and standardized.)
4-2.Regeneration
Milk with standardized fat ratio goes to the 2nd regeneration section. The milk entering this section meets the milk coming from the holding tube. (What the holding tube is will be explained in the next steps.) At this stage, the temperature of the milk reaches 60-70 oC.
5-Heater
In the next step, the milk reaches the heater section and in this process, the milk is heated with hot water. In this way, the temperature of the gradually increased milk is ensured to reach the pasteurization temperature exactly.
6- Holding Tube
The milk that has reached the pasteurization temperature is sent to the holding tube mentioned in item 2. It is ensured that harmful microorganisms in the milk, which is kept for a certain period of time, are killed. The heat trap consists of a long zigzag pipe system. The purpose of this process is to keep the milk at pasteurization temperature for a certain period of time. This time is on average 15 seconds. (The milk that comes out of the holding tube mentioned in the 4th article is the milk that comes out of it.) There is a thermometer and a valve at the end of the holding tube. If the temperature of the milk is not suitable, the valve works automatically and the pasteurizer is started to re-pasteurize the milk and circulates the system again.
7-1. and 2. Regeneration
If there is no problem with the temperature, the milk coming out of the hot holder is delivered to the 1st and 2nd regeneration chambers again. The milk coming here meets with raw milk and pasteurized milk is cooled. While the pasteurized milk is cooling, the raw milk that has just entered the system to be pasteurized is also heated. In this way, a great energy recovery is achieved.
8- Cooler
The pasteurized milk is finally transferred to the cooler section, where it is cooled with ice water.
Energy Recovery in Pasteurization
The most important point of the pasteurizer process is the part where the temperature of the newly arrived raw milk is increased up to 65°C by using the pasteurized milk. After this stage, the milk that reaches 65oC should be heated only 35 degrees more and brought to 90oC. A great energy saving is achieved as we use 90 degrees pasteurized milk, which we have heated at the beginning, to bring the raw milk from its initial temperature to 65 degrees.