Device and method for heat treatment of milk
The milk heat treatment device addresses high energy and material consumption issues by using quality-based milk processing and closed-loop cooling, achieving efficient and high-quality pasteurization and storage.
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- RU · RU
- Patent Type
- Patents
- Current Assignee / Owner
- FEDERALNOE GOSUDARSTVENNOE BYUDZHETNOE NAUCHNOE UCHREZHDENIE FEDERALNYJ NAUCHNYJ AGROINZHENERNYJ TSENTR VIM (FGBNU FNATS VIM)
- Filing Date
- 2025-06-10
- Publication Date
- 2026-06-30
AI Technical Summary
Existing milk pasteurization and cooling devices in agricultural settings face high energy and material consumption, significant operating costs, reliance on external heat and cold sources, and inadequate quality control, which hinders their use in low-productivity facilities and compromises milk quality.
A milk heat treatment device equipped with sensors for quality determination and multiple thermal refrigeration units, allowing for personalized milk processing through redirection based on quality, and closed-loop cooling circuits for efficient pasteurization and storage, including spray cooling in refrigeration chambers.
Enables rapid and high-quality pasteurization with personalized milk production, improving milk quality and reducing operational costs by optimizing energy use and maintaining milk quality throughout the process.
Smart Images
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Abstract
Description
[0001] The invention relates to the field of heat treatment and storage of agricultural products, in particular milk on livestock farms.
[0002] Cooling and pasteurization units for heat treatment of milk are known, containing a plate heat exchanger, an equalizing tank, a milk holding tank, a hot water pump, a boiler, a control unit, pipeline and shut-off and control valves (see, for example, Kovalev Yu. N. Dairy equipment for livestock farms and complexes. Moscow: Rosselkhozizdat, 1987, p. 169).
[0003] The disadvantage of known devices is their high energy and material consumption, high capital and operating costs, and the presence of energy-intensive external devices for heating and cooling: steam boilers, refrigeration units.
[0004] A pasteurization and cooling unit for heat treatment of liquid food products, primarily milk, is known, containing a heat exchanger with pasteurization and cooling sections and an electric steam generator with pipelines for supplying steam.
[0005] The disadvantage of the known installation is its high energy and material consumption, high capital and operating costs and the need to use refrigeration machines, which limits its use in agricultural facilities (patent RU No. 2027372 IPC A23C 3 / 02, 1992).
[0006] The closest technical essence to the claimed invention is a pasteurization and cooling device comprising a reservoir, a milk pump, shut-off and control valves, temperature sensors, and a thermo-refrigeration unit with thermal modules (patent RU 2206214, IPC A23C 3 / 02, A23C 3 / 04, A01J 9 / 04, 2002). The method for pasteurizing and cooling milk involves the use of water from the farm's hot and cold water supply systems.
[0007] The disadvantage of the known device is its high material consumption, significant operating costs, the need for external heat and cold sources, the lack of selection of personalized milk, a long pasteurization and cooling regime that does not contribute to maintaining the high quality of milk, which hinders its use in agriculture, especially in low-productivity facilities.
[0008] The disadvantage of the known method is the high water consumption and the need for constant cleaning of the heat exchange surfaces of the cooling equipment and the thermo-refrigeration unit due to the poor quality of the water, which leads to a decrease in the quality of milk.
[0009] The technical objective of the proposed invention is the rapid and high-quality pasteurization and cooling of milk, the possibility of obtaining selected personalized milk in primary milk processing lines on farms, including with robotic milking of cows.
[0010] The technical result is to improve the quality of milk.
[0011] The technical result is achieved in that the device for heat treatment of milk, containing a tank, a milk pump, a water pump, shut-off and control valves in the form of two- and three-way valves, temperature sensors, a thermo-refrigeration unit with thermal modules for pasteurization and cooling of bulk milk, according to the invention, is equipped with a sensor for determining the quality of milk, installed in front of a three-way valve for redirecting milk depending on its quality along three lines, one of which is equipped with a holder for pasteurized bulk milk, connected to the outlet of the milk channel of the thermo-refrigeration unit for bulk milk and a flow-through heat exchanger, the second line is equipped with an additional thermo-refrigeration unit for pasteurization of selected personalized milk, the outlet of the milk channel of which is connected to the equipment for bottling and packaging and a refrigeration chamber, and the third line is equipped with an additional thermo-refrigeration unit for pasteurization of illiquid milk,the outlet of the milk channel of which is connected to the containers for mastitis milk and for feeding calves,
[0012] The technical result is also achieved in that in the method for heat treatment of milk using a device that provides for heat exchange between milk and cooling cold water, according to the invention, rapid pasteurization of the collected milk in the flow during milking is carried out by means of thermal modules, while for pasteurization of selected personalized milk and illiquid milk, two additional thermal refrigeration units with thermal modules are used, while the cooling of the collected milk is carried out in an additional flow-through heat exchanger due to circulation along the first closed circuit (cold water accumulator with a water pump, a three-way valve, a flow-through heat exchanger, a three-way valve, a cold water channel of the thermal refrigeration unit, a cold water accumulator) of cold water cooled by means of thermal modules of the thermal refrigeration unit,and the cooling of selected personalized pasteurized milk after the filling and packaging equipment is carried out in bottles in a refrigeration chamber, and to increase the efficiency of cooling bottles with milk in the refrigeration chamber, spray cooling is used with cold water circulating in a second closed circuit: a cold water accumulator, a water pump, a valve, a refrigeration chamber, a valve, cold water channels of an additional thermo-refrigeration unit, a cold water accumulator.
[0013] The invention meets the criterion of “unity of invention”, since it is this device that ensures the implementation of the method.
[0014] The essence of the proposed device and method for heat treatment of milk is explained by a drawing, which shows a general diagram.
[0015] The device for heat treatment of milk contains a tank 1, a milk pump 2 with a milk quality sensor 3, connected through a three-way valve 4 with thermal refrigeration units 5, 6 and 7 with thermal modules 8, channels for milk 9 and water 10. The output of channel 9 of the thermal refrigeration unit 5 for bulk milk is connected through a holding tank 11 for pasteurized bulk milk and a flow-through heat exchanger 12 with a tank for pasteurized milk 13 and a milk tanker 14. The output of channel 9 of the thermal refrigeration unit 6 for selected personalized milk is connected to equipment for filling, capping 15 and a refrigeration chamber 16. The output of channel 9 of the thermal refrigeration unit 7 is connected to tanks for mastitis milk 17 and milk for feeding calves 18.Cooling of the collected milk is carried out in the heat exchanger 12 due to the circulation of cold water along the first closed circuit formed by the cold water accumulator 19 with the water pump 20, the three-way valve 21, the flow heat exchanger 12, the three-way valve 22 and the cold water channel 10 of the thermo-refrigeration unit 5. Cooling of the selected personalized milk is carried out in the refrigeration chamber 16 due to the circulation of cold water along the second closed circuit formed by the cold water accumulator 19 with the water pump 20, the three-way valve 21, the refrigeration chamber 16, the three-way valve 23 and the cold water channel 10 of the thermo-refrigeration unit 6. The temperature of the pasteurized milk and the cooling water is controlled by sensors 24, 25, 26 and 27, connected to the computer 28.
[0016] The milk heat treatment device works as follows.
[0017] During milking, milk is fed into tank 1, from where it is sent by milk pump 2, depending on its quality determined by milk quality sensor 3, through three-way valve 4 for pasteurization in thermo-cooling units 5, 6 or 7. Collected pasteurized milk from milk channel 9 of thermo-cooling unit 5 is fed through holding tank 11 to flow-through heat exchanger 12, where it is cooled by cold water circulating along the first closed circuit: cold water accumulator 19 with water pump 20, three-way valve 21, flow-through heat exchanger 12, three-way valve 22, cold water channel 10 of thermo-cooling unit 5, cold water accumulator 19, after which it is sent for additional cooling and storage in milk tank 13 and milk tanker 14.Selected personalized milk from the milk channel 9 of the thermo-cooling unit 6 is fed to the filling and packaging equipment 15, from where the bottles with milk are fed to the refrigeration chamber 16 for cooling and storage, while a small vacuum is created in the bottles, which ensures the preservation of the high quality of milk, and to increase the efficiency of cooling the bottles with milk in the refrigeration chamber 16, spray cooling is used with cold water circulating in the second closed circuit: cold water accumulator 19 with a water pump 20, a three-way valve 21, a refrigeration chamber 16, a three-way valve 23, a cold water channel 10 of the thermo-cooling unit 6, a cold water accumulator 19. Illiquid milk from the milk channel 9 of the thermo-cooling unit 7 is sent to tanks for mastitis milk 17 or milk for feeding calves 18. The temperature of milk and cooling water is monitored using sensors 24, 25, 26 and 27 computer related 28.
[0018] The method for heat treatment of milk using a device consists in that milk from tank 1 is sent by pump 2 through a three-way valve 4 for pasteurization to thermal-cooling units 5, 6 or 7, depending on its quality determined by milk quality sensor 3. Pasteurized bulk milk is kept in a holding tank 11 and cooled in a flow-through heat exchanger 12 due to the circulation of cold water along the first closed circuit formed by a cold water accumulator 19 with a water pump 20, a three-way valve 21, a flow-through heat exchanger 12, a three-way valve 22 and a cold water channel 10 of a thermal-cooling unit 5, after which it is sent for additional cooling and storage in a milk tank 13 and a milk tanker 14.Pasteurized selected personalized milk from the milk channel 9 of the thermo-cooling unit 6 is fed for bottling to the filling and capping equipment 15, from where the bottles with milk are fed to the cooling chamber 16 for spray cooling with cold water circulating along the second closed circuit formed by the cold water accumulator 19 with the water pump 20, the three-way valve 21, the cooling chamber 16, the three-way valve 23, and the cold water channel 10 of the thermo-cooling unit 6. Pasteurized illiquid milk from the milk channel 9 of the thermo-cooling unit 7 is sent to the tanks for mastitis milk 17 or milk for feeding calves 18. The temperature of the milk and cooling water is controlled by sensors 24, 25, 26 and 27 connected to the computer 28.
[0019] The use of a method and device for heat treatment of milk will improve the quality of milk.
Claims
1. A device for heat treatment of milk, comprising a reservoir, a milk pump, a water pump, shut-off and control valves in the form of two- and three-way valves, temperature sensors, a thermo-refrigeration unit with thermal modules for pasteurization and cooling of bulk milk, characterized in that it is equipped with a sensor for determining the quality of milk, installed before the three-way valve for redirecting milk depending on its quality along three lines, one of which is equipped with a holding tank for pasteurized bulk milk, connected to the outlet of the milk channel of the thermo-refrigeration unit for bulk milk and a flow-through heat exchanger, the outlet of which is connected to a tank for pasteurized bulk milk, the second line is equipped with an additional thermo-refrigeration unit for pasteurization of selected personalized milk, the outlet of the milk channel of which is connected to the equipment for bottling and packaging and a refrigeration chamber,and the third line is equipped with an additional thermo-refrigeration unit for pasteurization of illiquid milk, the outlet of the milk channel of which is connected to tanks for mastitis milk and for feeding calves, a cold water accumulator for cooling milk directly in all three lines.
2. A method for heat treatment of milk using a device, which consists in monitoring the temperature of milk and cold water, pasteurizing and cooling the milk, cooling the water, characterized in that before the pasteurization process, the quality of the collected milk is determined using a milk quality sensor, after which the collected milk is sent to thermo-cooling units with thermal modules for rapid pasteurization of the collected milk in the flow during milking, while for pasteurization of selected personalized milk and illiquid milk, two additional thermo-cooling units with thermal modules are used, and cooling of the collected pasteurized milk is carried out in an additional flow-through heat exchanger installed at the outlet of the thermo-cooling unit, due to circulation along the first closed circuit of cold water formed by a cold water accumulator with a water pump, a three-way valve, a flow-through heat exchanger,a three-way valve, a cold water channel of the thermo-refrigeration unit, a cold water accumulator, and the cooling of selected personalized pasteurized milk after the filling and packaging equipment is carried out in bottles in a refrigeration chamber, which uses spray cooling with cold water circulating in a second closed circuit formed by a cold water accumulator, a water pump, a valve, a refrigeration chamber, a valve, a cold water channel of an additional thermo-refrigeration unit, a cold water accumulator.