The use of micro-bubble nozzle technology to remove fat and protein from milking plant during the wash process has just had the tick of approval from Ministry for Primary Industries after exceeding national standards on hygiene.
The approval marks four years of work by Roger Gough of CIP Tech who learned about the micro-bubble technology on a documentary about its use to remove protective grease from newly milled steel in Japan.
Micro-bubbles are typically smaller than one hundredth of a millimetre and the technology is finding application in numerous areas including ultra-sounding, drug delivery and water treatment.
“After seeing that I really had something of a light-bulb moment driving through Reporoa, thinking about how it could be applied here on dairy farms.”
Gough’s background in dairy hygiene also helped him see the potential and he was prompted to seek out the manufacturer of the nozzle used to generate the bubbles and look at applying it to dairy hygiene.
Overseas research in areas of food processing has shown the technology can be used to reduce E coli and salmonella contamination when incorporating it into a washing process, requiring lower levels of heat, chemicals and energy to achieve the desired health standards.
Typically, dairy farmers have to run hot water through the plant after milking every day, often using an alternate alkali-acid wash routine, making electricity costs to provide the hot water a substantial part of most farm dairy operating bills.
But the action of the micro-bubbles and their ability to effectively lift protein and fat residues has resulted in MPI approving a reduction in the use of hot washes from seven a week to three.
“Essentially, the micro-bubbles injected by the nozzle create a huge level of turbulence down the milk line, bouncing off the stainless steel pipe.
“As the bubble collapses it forms a hydroxyl radical, proven to play a key part in the destruction of organic compounds, while also creating heat at a critical point of their collapse, lifting off the protein and fat compounds on the stainless steel’s surface.”
The technology has had extensive testing to prove it is at least equal to existing best practice for dairy hygiene. Gough said the results have exceeded expectations.
“We now have 15 units installed on commercial dairy farms, including five Pamu Landcorp units.
“Fonterra has been extremely helpful in the trials, providing aggregated and confidential milk test data from over 500 farms for comparison. When combined with the trial farm data this was a total of close to 30,000 milk samples to compare across the 2018-19 season.”
The micro-bubble technology resulted in only 1.1% of samples taken grading B or worse, compared to 7.3% of the farms using conventional cleaning systems.
The top A and A+ grades were achieved in 98.9% of the micro-bubble treated dairies, compared to 92.7% on the conventionally sanitised dairies.
“This is a very robust and significant sample base to compare it to and has meant the new micro-bubble system can now be used legally when done so alongside the recommended cleaning routine or wash programme that comes with it.”
This routine requires the same amount of chemical as used conventionally but has a 50% reduction in the amount of hot washes now required.
And with no moving parts the stainless steel nozzle technology can outlast a dairy shed.
The technology also applies to dairy farm milk silo cleaning.
“For a 500 cow dairy unit with hot water heating costs of about $12,000 a year you would conservatively expect to cut that cost in half. The payback period for larger operators with 1000 cows would be less than one year. For 250-300 cow operations you would expect three to four years.”
Gough has been given advice and financial support from Waikato agri-businessman Ross Hyland who believes the technology has come at an opportune time for dairy farmers under the hammer on farm costs.
“Dairy processors also like it because it reduces the initial seeding bacteria that arrives in milk at the plant from the farm.
That lower bacteria level provides processors with a larger production window for the manufacture of high-value products.”
While taking a softly-softly approach to the farm dairy hygiene market both men also see the potential for applying the micro-bubble technology to other areas of food processing including breweries and the wine industry.
Gough and Hyland believe the technology will deliver a welcome step change in the conventional and energy hungry process of keeping farm dairies sanitary.
“Farmers are under pressure to make more from the platform they have, reduce their carbon footprint, use fewer resources and cut back on costs.
“CIP Tech’s micro-bubble technology meets all those needs, delivering a win-win for everyone,” Hyland said.
