Abstract:
Milk processing plants are huge consumers of power because of the process heating and
cooling required in the different processes e.g., pre-heating, pasteurizing, refrigeration
and other processes like bottle filling and sealing. Take pasteurizing, for example,
heating litres of water to 90℃ using Kenya Power grid-tied electricity is costly leading
to high operation costs. This poses a threat to the future of such industries. An
evaluation of the total energy consumed in the Kiwama milk processing plant, located
in Nanyuki, was done. For the pre-heating process of the milk, wood fuel and electricity
are used. The use of wood fuel may not be sustainable due to the current climate change
being experienced with one of the causes being deforestation. Other processes such as
pasteurizing and cooling use grid-tied electricity which cost them a monthly average
cost of KSh130,926 in 2021. To reduce energy costs, the installation of solar panels and
a solar water heating system was recommended. For the solar PV system, 24 solar
panels each rated 400 W would meet 57% of the facility’s power demand. This
translates to an average monthly savings of KSh74,181. For the solar water heating
system, two solar water heaters are required each with a hot water tank capacity of
a,b
200L and flat plate collectors of area 2.5m
. This will save the facility a monthly average
energy cost of KSh6,726 and eliminate reliance on wood fuel. This way the facility will
also be contributing to Kenya’s Vision 2030 goal of having zero carbon emissions.
