Concurrent (co-current) design protects heat-sensitive proteins: hottest air meets wettest droplets, and the powder leaves the tower at just 80–90 °C. Disc atomisers at 20–25 krpm produce a 100–350 μm droplet cloud; residence time is 20–30 s. Downstream fluid-bed dryer/cooler removes the last 1–2% moisture and cools to packing temperature.
3–4 effect falling-film evaporator concentrates 12.4% TS milk to 50% TS at -0.85 bar, evaporating 60 t/h of water at only 60–72 °C. MVR (Mechanical Vapour Recompression) recompresses the vapour and reuses ~95% of its latent heat — driving specific energy down to ~250 kJ/kg water, roughly one third of a plain multi-effect line.
Every 16 hours of drying operation the wet line runs pre-rinse (30 °C, 5 min) → NaOH 1.5% at 75 °C (20 min) → intermediate rinse → HNO₃ 1% at 70 °C (15 min) → sanitiser → final rinse. Conductivity sensors verify chemical concentration; return-line temperature verifies contact temperature; a full CIP audit trail is logged in SCADA.
Siemens S7-1500 or Allen-Bradley ControlLogix backbone runs the OT ring; a redundant SCADA HMI logs every batch's temperatures, flows, CIP cycle, moisture readings and metal-detector rejects. All finished bags carry a GS1-128 code linking to raw-milk supplier, pasteurisation chart and lab CoA — closing full farm-to-pack traceability.