Contribution of Anhydrous Milk Fat to environmental impacts generated by the dairy processing

Abstract

Milk constitutes an important ingredient in the Algerian population diet. it is obtained by recovering process from milk powder or the recombination-based milk powder and anhydrous milk fat (AMF). These are the two main processes in place in Algerian dairies. In this study, carried out in a dairy processing situated in Boudouaou (Algiers), a comparative analysis of these two processes was conducted in order to determinate the contribution to environmental impacts of different basic elements of manufacturing milk. The approach used was based on the life cycle assessment (LCA), which is a standardized method (ISO 14040-14044). Results showed that the milk powder is the main hot spot in almost all the categories under assessment. Furthermore, adding the AMF has allowed the reduction of all impacts of the order of 3 to 6% resulting in a decrease of 4.74 E-02 kgCO eq of Global Warming Potential, 0.21MJ of the consumption of non-renewable energy, a reduction of 2.60 E-03kg SO eq for terrestrial acidification/nitrification potential. A decrease of 0.16kg TEGsoil is recorded to terrestrial ecotoxicity and 2.80 E-05kg PM2.5eq to respiratory inorganics