Winning the protein boom

Whey isn’t just for bodybuilders anymore. Whey’s ability to pack an immense amount of protein into a small, low-calorie package has made it a popular choice for everyone from new GLP-1 users to the elderly to ordinary, health-conscious people. It’s a major coup for dairy processors that have been able to turn what used to be a waste product into a consistent source of revenue.
However, as processors work to seize this protein-rich opportunity, they need to find new ways of significantly boosting output with the resources they have. When managed poorly, their expensive membrane elements, which are central not only to the extraction of whey, but to dairy processing in general, can slow production down or grind it to a halt.
New approaches to membrane management give dairy processors the power to ensure consistent food safety while also driving better cost efficiency, increased uptime, and more throughput.
Over time, inefficient cleaning cycles can steal away production hours. This is why new digital solutions are being sought to support an optimised approach to membrane management.

Digital tools

Membranes are essential, but without the right insights, they can also be a bit of a black box. A steady clean-in-place (CIP) drumbeat helps keep membranes safe and productive. It’s the best tool at our disposal for removing the grime that inevitably builds during the process of concentrating whey.
It’s often difficult (or impossible) to get a sense of how intense this buildup has become, or how quickly it’s building up. If cleanings are disconnected from real-time visibility into membrane soiling (and how that soiling is affecting throughput levels) the overall efficiency of the production line is at risk.
The result is a laundry list of negative outcomes. If unaddressed, intense buildups subject membranes to too much pressure, which causes them to deteriorate faster. On the other end of the cleaning spectrum, intense cleanings with chlorinated chemistries cause their own form of wear and tear. In both cases, dairy processors are stuck with higher maintenance and replacement costs and frequent, unexpected disruptions to their most valuable resource: production time.
Dairy manufacturers need an alternative to this lose-lose equation. They deserve a higher degree of optimisation that lets them protect their membranes and their uptime. The solution is to get rid of the black box. Real-time visibility into membrane performance ca put the power back into the processor’s hands.

Digital monitoring can alert processors when membranes throughput slows past a given threshold, giving the chance to act immediately. That means fewer unnoticed buildups that require lots of time, energy, chemistry, and water to fix. Processors can proactively stay ahead of painful slowdowns and keep membranes working better, longer.
A more detailed look at each membrane also means less time troubleshooting. Trying to root out the cause of a slowdown? A digital dashboard helps you find the problem membrane in a heartbeat. A process that may have taken hours or days of trial and error is now replaced with a confident, effective course of action.
This optimised approach to membrane management helps facilities shed the inefficiencies of more traditional approaches. Freed from the constraints of handwritten log sheets, a proactive and digitally informed approach drives more uptime, more effective membranes, and more product.

The enzyme revolution
For years, processors have relied on chlorinated membrane cleaners, and for good reason. These cleaners are really good at clearing soil buildups and keeping membranes safe. This being said, chlorine comes with its downsides, all of which are deeply familiar to the seasoned plant supervisor.
For starters, it erodes membranes over time, which shortens their usable lifespan. High chlorine content can create inadvertent product quality issues, and elevated chlorates in wastewater can push treatment costs up. If handled incorrectly, chlorinated cleaners can also pose a threat to employee safety, especially in concentrated form. To many, these tradeoffs may seem necessary. They’re not.
Enzymatic CIP chemistry offers dairy processors the same (or better) clean without the cost and sustainability drawbacks. By targeting and breaking down specific dairy soils, enzymatic cleaners remove soils from membranes without eroding them over time. They can also break down protein soils throughout the wash step, which means a great clean faster and more efficiently. It’s a win-win. Armed with this new generation of enzymatic cleaners, dairy manufacturers can clean without compromise.

The path forward
The protein boom isn’t slowing down. In fact, it’s speeding up, with some estimates predicting the demand will double over the next decade. Dairy processors face a tricky mandate to do much more with the equipment and resources to hand. In a low margin environment where even small process improvements can translate into meaningful gains, digital monitoring platforms and enzymatic cleaners are moving toward less downtime and more output.