Darfield spray dryer completes first season

Fonterra’s 30 tonne per hour milk powder plant at Darfield, New Zealand, has been in full operation since being started up in August 2013 and has now completed its first milking season. Darfield D2, built by GEA, is the second of two at Fonterra¹s Darfield milk processing site, and it has the capacity to convert around four and a half million litres of fresh liquid milk into milk powder every day.

Prior to Darfield D2, this capacity could not be achieved by a single dryer, according to GEA. It was commissioned in August 2013 for the beginning of the New Zealand milking season, has worked practically non-stop for the last nine months, and has now concluded its first year of operation. At the peak of the season, the dryer produced more than 700 tonnes of milk powder a day. According to Richard Gray, Fonterra¹s operations manager for the Canterbury region, “The drier commissioning was very successful, and Drier 2 at Darfield plays an important role in Fonterra¹s strategy to meet the strong demand for dairy nutrition around the world.”