Integration of a solar thermal system in a dairy process

Any analysis of the current energy world scenario draws on the combination of energy efficiency improvement and the use of renewable-type energies. The industrial use of renewable energies is not still well established as they present several problems that generate insecurity in this sector. Some of the renewable energy resources work intermittently (like the sun or wind) and the energy they provide is, often, of low intensity. Solar thermal technology has been successfully introduced in domestic applications and buildings. Many industrial processes work in temperature intervals where solar thermal technology would be able to supply an important amount of the total energy input at an acceptable price. Based on mathematical modeling, this work evaluates the viability of integrating a solar thermal system to the conventional energy structure of a dairy plant in the Atlantic side of Spain. Pinch methodology has been used to develop the integration of the solar subsystem in the energy installation of the plant. In order to determine the potential of the solar thermal energy, several hypotheses and scenarios were analyzed, based on real cases of the productive process. As a result, it could be stated that the solar thermal energy potential for the studied industrial process, operating at low and middle temperatures, was considerable, and must be taken into account as an energy option. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.