Filtration sensation: the washing machine principle

Significant might be an understatement. For the same cleaning efficiency, their Smart Filtration CIP software reduces energy input by up to 46%. For a large whey protein plant performing a CIP cycle one times per day, this translates into power savings of up to 400 kWh per day and nearly 150,000 kWh per year – enough to power roughly 40 German households for a year. 

Moreover, pulsing the cleaning loops requires less energy to maintain temperatures, which means far less cooling water is needed during CIP. “If you don't add 400 kilowatts, you don't have to remove 400 kilowatts of heat,” says GEA’s Mads Bjerre Andersen, Technical Sales Manager, Membrane Filtration Technologies. “It’s another great example of the efficiency gains – and we’re seeing customers coming back and choosing GEA solutions because our operational expenditures (OPEX) are now much lower than our competition.”

The partner software to Smart Filtration CIP is Smart Filtration Flush, which governs the flushing of the filtration equipment. “The conventional approach is to determine the length of the flush cycle based on the volume of water used. This is based on past data, so it remains an approximation – and suboptimal,” explains Mikkelsen. Thanks to modern sensor technology, the team’s new software measures the product properties in real time so that operators know when exactly the individual process streams have been flushed sufficiently. As soon as the results are achieved, the process shuts off. “The flush time and water volume are optimized by basing them on actual inline measurements, not the volume of water used,” says Mikkelsen.

Here, too, the results are impressive. The software reduces freshwater consumption during CIP by up to 52% compared with conventional membrane filtration systems. “A typical dairy whey protein concentration process needs two to four interconnected filtration plants – a setup that can require more than 100,000 liters of water per cleaning cycle,” explains Mikkelsen. “Today, we know from plant tests that we can save well up to 50,000 liters of water per cleaning in such large plants and 500 to 700 liters per CIP in small productions.” Using the software, a single large plant could save up to up to 100,000 liters per day and roughly 36 million per year, enough to supply some 400 German households. “More efficient flushing also means less time required for CIP, which translates into greater production uptime,” says Mikkelsen. “Lower water intake also means a lower hydraulic load on the wastewater system.”

Digitalization supercharge

The breakthrough offers a prime example of unlocking the power of digitalization to achieve resource-saving innovation, a core objective of GEA’s Mission 2030 strategy. Such resource savings are usually realized in the form of gradual efficiency gains; in this case it was more of a leap. “Sometimes you find a solution like we have and you realize that you can operate with a lot less power and water just by taking a critical look at existing processes,” says Mikkelsen. “And digitalization has been a gift for us. We're pulling much more information from pumps and flowmeters, and other process instruments learning about the actual effect of different speeds and different pumps on power and water consumption. It has taken the guesswork out of the process and provides tremendous leverage for boosting cost resource efficiency for our customers.”

The GEA team recently installed the CIP and Flush software at the Ammerland dairy in northern Germany. One of the largest, most modern dairy cooperatives in the world, Ammerland produces 400 metric tonnes of cheese per day, along with 60 metric tonnes of butter and 160 metric tonnes of milk powder, exporting half of its products to more than 60 countries. In April 2024, Ammerland’s Wiefelstede production site retrofitted GEA’s Smart Filtration CIP and Flush software onto three membrane filtration plants to optimize membrane filtration cleaning. This included one membrane filtration plant from a non-GEA supplier. As of November 2024, Ammerland had reduced their water usage by 48% and energy consumption by up to 77% for the CIP process. 

“Consider the sheer number of crossflow membrane filtration plants operating around the world. The total potential for reduction in power consumption and the environmental impact is substantial” says Mørk “It´s great to see how this digital solution has such profound impact on energy consumption.”