Application brief: Reverse Osmosis of Greek-style yogurt whey Press release Hudson !

" #$ August %$&# 'he Greek sometimes referred to as strained yogurt category in the () has e*ploded onto the scene causing significant disruption in the overall refrigerated yogurt market+ Greek yogurt accounts for some ,,- of the total yogurt category sales value in the () up from .ust ,- in %$$/+ A typical modern manufacturing process for Greek yogurt involves high heat treatment of skim milk inoculation with thermophilic cultures fermentation and whey separation+ "n addition to substantially reducing the indigenous microbial population of the milk the severe heat treatment induces thermochemical bonding of milk serum proteins with casein as well as serum protein aggregation+ A continuous gel matri* forms as the fermentation proceeds through the isoelectric points of the various proteins+ !hey is separated from the white mass utili0ing either centrifugal separation or (ltrafiltration+ Appro*imately three pounds of skim milk yields appro*imately one pound of Greek yogurt while the remaining two pounds is the acid whey byproduct+ "n contrast to sweet whey this acid whey byproduct has been substantially depleted of serum or whey proteins resultant from the temperature treatment described above and lactose as a result of the lactic acid fermentation+ Additionally this acid whey contains accumulations of milk minerals lactic acid and galactose an unfermentable epimer of glucose all resulting from the fermentation process+ 1urrent outlets for this low-value byproduct are therefore limited to land application as fertili0er bovine and2or porcine feed or feedstock for anaerobic digestion for gas production+ 3ecause the whey volume represents about two-thirds of the incoming milk volume transportation cost for returning the acid whey to field or farm represents a significant e*pense+ As an interim step toward developing a more value-added solution G4A 5iltration has successfully commerciali0ed the use of Reverse Osmosis 6RO7 to concentrate the acid whey by a factor of three to four thereby reducing transport cost proportionally+ 'he RO permeate is further purified in a Polisher 6ROP7 to produce recovered water for re-use within the factory+ "n addition to reducing the transportation cost of acid whey disposal the concentrated whey has a higher nutritional density than the unconcentrated precursor and provides some opportunity for producing a small revenue stream from the animal feed application+ G4A 5iltration has already sold several commercial RO whey processing facilities to the leading Greek yogurt producers in 8orth America+ 3ruce 3lanchard - 8ational )ales 9anager G4A 5iltration G4A Process 4ngineering "nc+ Phone :& ;&< #;; $<## 5a* :& ;&< #/= >#;= bruce+blanchard?gea+com www+gea+com 2 www+geafiltration+com About G4A 5iltration G4A 5iltration is world renowned for its custom designs of the most advanced cross-flow membrane filtration systems that utili0e the technologies of microfiltration ultrafiltration nanofiltration or reverse osmosis for each customer@s specific application+ G4A 5iltration has e*tensive e*pertise in pilot trials application development systems scale-up pro.ect engineering process integration fabrication installation and start-up as well as service and membrane replacement