Tetra Pak: How Dairy Processing Equipment Halves Emissions

Modern dairy processing equipment could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 49%, according to research conducted by Tetra Pak.

The food packaging company has published findings from its Dairy Processing Assessment, which demonstrates how businesses can improve the environmental impact of their existing liquid dairy lines.

The study was independently reviewed by the Carbon Trust to ensure the methodology and findings meet industry standards.

Significant efficiency gains identified

The study's context centres on the global dairy sector's critical role in food systems through the products it provides and the livelihoods it supports worldwide. Tetra Pak suggests this presents a substantial opportunity, with businesses able to optimise existing processing lines using solutions already available on the market.

The research compared Tetra Pak's 2019 best-practice dairy processing lines with upgraded lines featuring market-available decarbonisation and recovery solutions across four major line types.

Impact was calculated using an avoided-emissions and net carbon impact approach, which enabled Tetra Pak to quantify changes in emissions resulting from reduced electricity, heat and cooling demand. This methodology accounts for the emissions generated by the solutions themselves.

Throughout the process, Tetra Pak collaborated with the Carbon Trust to review and refine the model and methodology for avoided greenhouse gas emissions. This included clearer documentation of assumptions, a data-quality assessment and sensitivity analysis on key parameters.

The research found that modernising existing equipment delivers considerable efficiency gains, with average reductions of 47% in greenhouse gas emissions, 45% in water use and 57% in product losses. According to Tetra Pak, if these modernisations were adopted across the global dairy production industry, it could lead to potential carbon savings equivalent to removing three million cars from the roads.

The study also found that implementing water saving and recovery solutions, such as advanced filtration and cleaning in place (CIP) systems, could reduce water usage in dairy production lines by up to 455 million m³ per year globally.

Rodrigo Godoi, Vice President, Processing Portfolio Management at Tetra Pak, says: "For many dairy producers, improving efficiency while managing costs is a daily challenge.

"Our study shows that practical improvements to existing lines can reduce energy, water and product loss, helping customers strengthen performance and lower total cost of ownership without major disruption.

"And with supportive policy frameworks and access to targeted financial incentives, these improvements can be scaled even further, helping producers overcome upfront investment barriers and accelerating progress across the dairy sector."

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Veronika Thieme, Associate Director Europe at the Carbon Trust, says: "Our food systems offer significant decarbonisation opportunities. Assessing avoided emissions is a powerful way to understand the carbon savings these solutions can deliver.

"By quantifying the avoided emissions from new solutions that can help the agricultural industry cut emissions, we create the evidence base needed to scale them."

Available technology solutions

The findings from Tetra Pak and the Carbon Trust's research demonstrate how improvements to existing processing lines could contribute to more stable and resilient food systems. The emissions reductions can be supported by upgrades that Tetra Pak offers to dairy production lines.

These include electrically powered heat pumps, which replace the use of fossil fuel-based energy in boilers and chillers, lowering fuel consumption and heat-related emissions.

The company offers integrated process efficiency, enabled by OneStep Technology, for ultra-high temperature (UHT) milk and yoghurt. This combines multiple process steps into a single, more efficient concept, delivering electricity and steam savings.

Tetra Pak also provides filtration and recovery solutions, including membrane filtration and CIP recovery, as well as water filtering stations that recover product loss and water from process and cleaning streams.