ASHRAE Technology Award: Cheese Factory: Biogas Heats Production PDF

The Fromagerie des Basques family cheese factory in Trois Pistoles, Quebec, Canada, transforms about 800,000 gallons (3 million L) of milk into cheese each year. However, until 2012, the factory's boiler was in the middle of the production area, and the pasteurizer used so much power that all other power consumers had to be turned off when it was running. In 2011, a project was developed that included building a mechanical room, constructing a treatment plant to turn whey and white water into biogas to produce heat for cheese production, and modifying the high-temperature, short-time pasteurizer to use rejected heat to preheat milk. The projects reduced the amount of heating oil used by 64%, even with the addition of several buildings increasing the total square footage by 8,100 ft2 (753 m2).