ARTS – Association de Recherche pour

la Technologie et les Sciences

Eco-design of cascade membrane processes for the preparation

of milk protein fractions: approach and LCA results
Sophie Omont
Daniel Froelich, Philippe Osset, François Thueux, Murielle Rabiller-Baudry, Didier
Beudon, Lionel Tregret, Christian Buson, David Auffret, Geneviève Gesan-Guiziou

LCA Food 2010, September 22-24, Bari

 ECOPROM

ECO-design for Membrane PROcesses

→ Separation: α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin

Financial support from the National Research Agency

→ Project ANR-06-PNRA-015 - 01/2007-01/2011

Consortium:
→ Research laboratories: membrane filtration / eco-design
→ Environmental research firm
→ Consulting firm
→ Filtration equipment company
→ Agro-food industrial group

LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 2

 ECOPROM
Impact sources
LCA Company strategy
Impacts

Eco-design recommendations

Objective
To develop an approach for the eco-design of
membrane processes in the dairy industry

LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 3

 LCA: System

Milk production
Transpor
t Milk

System Cheese
Cream, casein
boundaries Milk processing processing or
micelles & lactose
recovery
Transpor
t
Purification by membrane processes & drying

Wastewater
treatment
α-lactalbumin powder β-lactoglobumin powder

Trade, consumption, Trade, consumption,

… …

LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 4

 LCA : Scope

Scope
→ Included: unit operations / equipment / cleaning/ transport
→ Excluded: production facilities: maintenance, lighting, etc.

Hypotheses
→ System lifetime: 20 years
→ Dairy and protein purification plant are 100 km apart
→ Geographical area: France (see energy mix for electricity generation)

LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 5

 LCA : Scope

Functional unit
→ Processing of 583,000 l of milk, generating 5 co-products:

Cooled raw cream, cooled retentate of casein micelles, lactose

2 protein fractions: α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin

Allocation rules
→ Assessment of a process without allocation rules between its
different co-products

LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 6

 LCA : Inventory

Inventory
→ Collection of specific data: calculated controlled flows

4 sub-systems
→ Processing
→ Cleaning
→ Equipment
→ Transport

LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 7

 LCA : Results and discussion

System

Damages normalized using the IMPACT 2002+ method

→ Depletion of resources by the «transformation» and «cleaning» sub-

systems

LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 8

 LCA :Results
LCA: Resultsand
anddiscussion
discussion

«Processing» sub-system: 4 functions

Functions Unit operation
Pasteurization and successive
1- Control of the product’s
cooling operations
microbiological quality

2- Transformation of the milk to Skimming, MF at 50°C, UF at

manufacture co-products 15°C, RO at 15°C
3- Purification and concentration Acidification, MF at 50°C,
of 2 protein fractions: α and β solubilization and 2 UF at 15°C
4- Formation of α and β protein
2 Drying operations
powders
MF: Microfiltration. UF: Ultrafiltration. RO: Reverse Osmosis.
LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 9
 LCA : Results and discussion

«Processing» sub-system
Microfiltration at
50°C

Damages normalized using the IMPACT 2002+ method

→ Depletion of resources by the unit operations consuming electricity and/or

gas.

LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 10

 LCA: Results and discussion

«Cleaning» sub-system

LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 11

 LCA: Results and discussion

«Cleaning» sub-system

Damages standardized using the IMPACT 2002+ method

→ Depletion of resources: mainly the electricity consumed to process the

wastewater
→ Under-estimation of the impact, since the assessment method did not
take into account the impact of fresh water use
LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 12
 LCA : Conclusions

Identification of improvement possibilities

2 main sub-systems Resource saving

→ Energy
Processing → Water
Cleaning operations → Substances
→ Milk (see bibliographical data)

LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 13

 From LCA to eco-design
Legislation
«Exhaustive» data collection
Assessment of the «relevant» impacts LCA Company strategy Image
Cost
Technological feasibility

Milk losses
Energy consumption
Main impacts Water consumption
CO2 emissions
Substance consumption

Process eco-design
Optimization: water recycling, Technological
thermal flow control, milk loss breakthrough
reduction

Simplified LCA LCA

Plant eco-design
Energy losses Energy losses
Utse of renewable energies Use of renewable energies
Eco-industrial synergies Eco-industrial synergies

LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 14

 Thank-you for your attention

LCA Food 2010 – September 23rd, 2010 15