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Pilot Plant

Pilot Plant

The Dairy Products Technology Center at Cal Poly has a pilot plant with scaled-down versions of equipment similar to that found in commercial facilities. It is available for hire to assist with the R&D efforts of the dairy industry. 

Capabilities include UHT/HTST processing, spray drying, evaporation, membrane filtration, ice cream manufacture, butter manufacture, and cheesemaking. The pilot plant is for research purposes only and is not intended for commercial production. 

 

Pilot Plant Equipment  

  • Microthermics UHT (direct and indirect heating) with clean-fill hood (25 L/hr)  
  • Egli continuous pilot-scale butter churn (1 to 2 lbs/min)  
  • PMS 30-gallons/hr HTST with two-stage homogenizer  
  • Technogel 100 L/hr continuous ice cream freezer  
  • Marriott Walker rising film evaporator (100 lbs/hr evaporation capacity)  
  • Two Universal 50-gallon specialty cheese vats  
  • Stefan process cheese cooker (5 lbs.)  
  • 4 Groen process steam kettles (40 to 60 gallons)  
  • Spiral-wound DDS UF and RO system (50 to 100 L/hr)  
  • 2-50 L cheese vats  
  • 2-50 L electric batch butter churn  
  • Niro Filterlab spray dryer FLG-60 (60 lb/hr. water evaporation rate, capable of drying milk, whey and agglomeration) 
 

Commercial Creamery Equipment  

  • HTST — 270 to 600 gallons per hour for ice cream mix, milk, etc., and associated cold milk, separator, batch tanks (1×80 gallons, 2×100 gallons, 1×200 & 1×300 gallons with heating and cooling, 1×400 gallons with heating, 2×500 gallons), pasteurized surge tanks, CIP systems, etc.  
  • Scholle filler for 3- to 6-gallon bags  
  • Continuous ice cream freezer (Hoyer Frigus SF 600) (50 to 150 gallons/hr)  
  • Ingredient feeder (Hoyer Addus FF 2000 C2) (10 to 200 L/hr)  
  • Sawvel cup filler—pint to 3.5 oz.; 35 cups/minute (pint)  
  • Open-water jacketed cheese vats (Stoelting 500 gallons, Kusel 2 to 100 gallons) 
  • 150-gallon Damrow Double-O enclosed cheese vat  
  • Koch vacuum packaging system (1- to 40-lb. block)  
  • Miscellaneous tanks and pumps – Highshear Silverson mixer  
  • Cold storage (-15° to -40° F) (approx. 200 sq. ft.)  

Contact 

For more information, please contact Dimitri Genard at dgenard@calpoly.edu or 805-756-6104.

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