Turning Rural Raw Milk Storage Stations Green
Raw fresh milk is highly perishable and easily affected by microorganisms that cause spoilage. Milk quality deteriorates rapidly without treatment through the application of cooling or/and heating processes. Spoiled milk can cause illness for its consumers and economic losses for its producers.
With and ever increasing demand of milk, the storage facilities need to increase their capacity, leading to higher energy consumption for cooling and heating purposes. Optimizing these processes represents the greatest potential to cutting electricity consumption and reducing operating costs. Therefore installing a solar water heating system comes in to help reduce the cost of heating water.
In present practice bulk milk coolers (BMC) are used for chilling milk at milk collection centres. After completing the chilling cycle, it is essential to clean the equipment with hot water. In rural areas the water is heated by using gas geysers, diesel or by using the electrical heaters. Installing a solar water heating system can help to reduce the cost of heating water in a great way.
The local milk producers of Rajasthan transport their milk to BMC (bulk milk cooler) facilities in milk cans for proper storage of milk. From here the milk is further transported to dairies where it is processed. BMC facility is utilized to chill the milk to maintain its quality and control the growth of microbes. Here, hot water is utilized for washing of milk containers, the high temperature of water used for washing of the equipment ensures that the containers are cleaned and sterilized properly thereby ensuring the safety of milk.
SolarMaxx has covered over 250 such BMC’s in Palsana, Sikar and Jhunjhunu and many other extremely remote locations in the Sikar District of Rajasthan. Providing them with environment-friendly, cost-saving Solar Water Heating facility which is extremely easy to maintain and provides hot water in all seasons. Solar Water heaters not only help save money from E-Bill but also provides a water heating solution for those rural regions where Grid availability is low.
