Energy-efficient cheese production in Ukraine

Gadyach Cheese plant, located in the agricultural region of Ukraine, Poltava, produces more than 80 types of milk products and is one of the largest producers in the country.

The company applied to UKEEP for financing of the energy efficiency project aiming to decrease the production costs and increase the competitiveness.

The UKEEP team supported the company with analysis of the proposed technology and its financial-technical parameters to ensure the successful implementation of the project.

The project envisaged replacement of the old filtering system for cheese production. The old system was producing cheese by means of evaporation of the liquid semi-product. This required large amounts of gas to heat up the liquid and evaporate it. The new  nano-filtration system has a conceptually different approach based on mechanic separation of solid and liquid particles, eliminating heat and gas consumption in principle and, hence, being energy efficient.

The $1 million investment allowed the company to reduce its natural gas consumption by more than 7 million cubic meters per year and additionally save over 25 per cent of electricity consumption. The total annual energy savings of $1.5 million allow to repay the investment in less than one year.

This is a good example of the state-of-art technology applied in food industry allowing the company to preserve the food’s quality and survive through the energy crisis.