Optimising the ice cream production
Company: Skarø is
Location: Skarø, Funen, Denmark
Year: 2021
Application: Ice Cream
Technology: ProcessMaster
The tiny island of Skarø, located in Denmark’s Funen archipelago, is home to a very special, artisan ice cream producer: Skarø Is. The company offers products for both the Danish and international markets in three categories: gourmet ice cream, soft-serve ice cream and specially formulated ice cream for the health sector.
Martin Jørgensen is the owner of Skarø Is. “Skarø Is produces a series of organic ice cream based on pure Danish quality, raw ingredients. And, with large, international customers such as Singapore Airlines, sustainable production and consistent product quality are absolutely key.”
Quality challenge
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Skarø Is operated a production setup that had helped the company off to a good start, but which also presented a long list of challenges, not the least of which was the difficulty of ensuring consistency from machine to machine and batch to batch.
Undaunted by the pandemic, Skarø Is set out to look for new ways to create a more sustainable production setup that could deliver the desired quality time and time again – and with lower energy consumption. It was a journey that led them to Daniatech, a producer of energy-efficient high-shear mixers. Daniatech was founded in March 2015 with the aim to develop and sell state-of-the-art mixers for the process industry, and the manufacturer maintains a strong focus on high quality and energy-efficient solutions.
Daniatech Managing Director Jens Andersen picks up the story: “When Skarø Is first approached us, they were running five machines, each of which ran for 24 hours. The old equipment was not equipped with central control, couldn’t handle vegan ice cream at high quality, and wasn’t able to reuse excess heat from the freezers. So, there was certainly room for improvement!”
The solution
The Daniatech team started a dialogue to understand the company’s needs – with respect for the small ice cream producer’s special ethos. The selection process drew upon a long experience with many different production designs, helping the customer to consider and technically evaluate requirements now and for the future. The final choice fell upon a Daniatech 400 l ProcessMaster to do the job.
The ProcessMaster range represents the next generation of mixing solutions for the process industry. Virtually maintenance-free, it is more compact in its design and highly optimised for energy-efficient high-shear mixing.
“With this newly installed batch pasteurizer, a ProcessMaster 400 l, we expect to reduce our energy emissions by half while increasing production volume.” – Martin Jørgensen, owner of Skarø Is.
The essential workings of a ProcessMaster unit are quite simple; a vacuum draws powder from the funnel into the mixer, instantly wetting it. Simultaneously, a powerful, high-shear mixer and scraper agitator generate a controlled vortex within the tank. And it is this combination of vortex and vacuum that effectively separates air from liquid, rapidly generating a perfectly homogeneous dispersion. Each unit features an insulated jacket to enable fast heating and cooling using steam or ice water, while, for extra quick heating, direct steam valves can be specified.
Sustainable advantages
Today, instead of using five machines that run for 24 hours, Skarø Is can produce the same volume with a single, fully automated Daniatech ProcessMaster that operates for only five hours, and the final product is highly stable and homogeneous, air and lump-free ice cream. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
“To put it briefly, it means that we can produce higher quality ice cream with less energy.” – Martin Jørgensen, owner of Skarø Is
A key focus area for Skarø Is is finding ways to reduce its environmental impact. Of course, with locally sourced, organic ingredients, central elements of a sustainable business model were already in place. Now, these benefits could be matched with energy-efficient machinery. Here, with the ProcessMaster in place, surplus heat from freezers can be stored in tanks and used for pre-heating of the ice cream mix, which in turn presents significant energy savings.
“Previously, we spent around EUR 5.500 on power each month – now we only have to spend perhaps EUR 2.700.” – Martin Jørgensen, owner of Skarø Is
These savings, coupled with new capabilities such as the ability to monitor and control the production from a remote location, have moved Skarø Is to the forefront of low-volume, artisan ice cream production – simultaneously preparing the company for an exciting future of growth.
For this company, we delivered:
400 l ProcessMaster that functions as a pasteuriser
- Dynamic mixer head
- Cooling/heating jacket
- Reusing glycol from freezers
- Immersion heater
- Vacuum system
- Vacuum inlet from a funnel
- Vacuum inlet from milk storage tanks
- Heat exchangers at both product inlet and outlet
- Agitator
- Fully automated control
- Remote access
Skarø Is - TV appearance
TV coverage by TV2 Fyn Denmark on the 2nd of July 19.30
