Arla Dairy.

Maximised manufacturing potential.

Arla Foods had high aspirations for its new dairy in Aylesbury. The facility was designed to process one billion litres of milk a year and have the potential to process up to 240,000 litres of milk per hour. It was to be the largest, most technologically advanced liquid milk processing facility in the world.

Daring to be different.

The brief required a facility that would be highly energy-efficient, focused on sustainable design, reduce water demands, use recovered waste streams, and take fresh milk processing to the next generation of its evolution.

To calculate energy outcomes, we built a bespoke mathematical model so that we could estimate the carbon output of different technologies. We estimated each element that was under consideration for the energy centre, to ensure that our designs would incorporate the best possible technologies to optimise both the facility’s requirement and the energy/carbon targets.

Technical triumph.

The solution we brought together included a central CHP plant, refrigeration systems that use non-synthetic refrigerants, and even an ‘anaerobic’ digestion plant that produces biogas from the liquid waste streams.

We had a close relationship with Arla’s direct process supply companies and we worked together to establish and optimise energy use and the facility’s energy balance. This close collaboration with suppliers, along with the client and wider design team, allowed us to understand and model all the predicted energy demands and technical requirements. This – coupled with our detailed technical exploration – meant we achieved all of the project’s energy, water, and carbon-reduction aims.