Easton, MD—The Caloris Low-Spore Powder Production Process today was awarded U.S. Patent No. 10,182,580 (“System and Method for Production of Low Thermophile and Low Spore Milk Powder”).
The patent details a robust processing sequence that minimizes an increase in spore counts throughout the critical processing steps, while maintaining continuity of the production process.
“The Caloris Low-Spore Process is a valuable investment for processors looking to achieve the lowest possible spore levels in their produced powder,” said Caloris President & CEO Jim Peterson. “We are excited by the results we’ve seen with our customers and look forward to helping more companies improve their powder production systems.”
Many processors face the challenge of achieving consistently low spore counts throughout a production day. In a typical process, the spore-forming microorganisms (present in the raw milk) begin to establish biofilms in the course of a production day. In particular, the feed preheating and initial product concentration sections of the evaporator provide ideal growth conditions for biofilms generated by spore-forming bacteria. These biofilms, after a maturing period of ~10 hours, begin to release spores into the milk, resulting in significantly increased spore counts through the remainder of the production run. The Caloris Low-Spore Process, in an efficient manner, simply takes away the opportunity for the microorganisms to establish a biofilm that contributes to higher spore levels in the finished product.
The key to the Caloris Low Spore Process is well-timed evaporator system CIP cycles, which eliminate the presence of mature biofilms during operation and thereby prevent contamination of the milk product with spores. The configuration of the Caloris Low Spore Process allows for these CIP cycles to occur without interrupting the powder production of the spray dryer system.
Thorough cleaning just as the biofilms begin to reach maturity, prevents any significant contamination of the product with spores from biofilms. This also provides the added benefits of cleaning evaporator surfaces before they develop any significant solids fouling, allowing the evaporator to consistently operate at highest energy efficiency throughout the day, minimizing the soiling of recovered CIP chemicals and requirements for fresh make-up chemicals, and reducing the daily loading of waste solids discharged to the plant waste treatment systems.
To avoid any disruption to downstream spray dryer systems from frequent evaporator CIP cleanings, the Caloris Low Spore Process separates the initial Pre-Evaporator systems from the subsequent high concentration evaporator and spray drying systems. These Pre-Evaporator systems operate at ~20% above the capacity of the downstream high concentrator and spray dryer systems, producing an inventory of skim condensed sufficient to maintain uninterrupted spray dryer operation for two hours.
After a specific period of operation on product, the Pre-Evaporator systems undergo a complete CIP cycle (product-to-product) within a period of two hours, returning to production of skim condensed before the inventory supplying the spray dryer system is depleted. In the high concentration evaporator and spray dryer feed system components, the higher solids concentration suppresses the rate of biofilm formation and maturation, allowing those systems to operate continuously for longer periods of time without biofilms contaminating product.
This same process won the 2018 American Dairy Products Institute Breakthrough Award for Dairy Ingredient Innovation.
For more information about the Caloris Low-Spore Powder Process, call 410-822-6900 or send email to problem.solved@caloris.com.
About Caloris Engineering, LLC
Caloris Engineering is a process technology company that engineers and builds thermal and membrane processing systems for the juice, dairy and other food industries to create the best achievable concentrates and a wide spectrum of powders produced on Caloris Tower or Compact Multiple Stage (CMS) spray dryers. Caloris equipment is also used to treat industrial wastewater, including the Caloris Thin Film Dryers (TFDs) that convert brines and other wastewater concentrates into powder. Caloris technologies are consistently energy efficient for lower costs and reduced carbon footprints. Caloris was founded in 2006 in Easton, Md. Learn more at https://caloris.com.