Arla Vimmerby now 30% more energy efficient

“This is the biggest energy saving in Arla’s history. And we’re not even done yet,” says Allan Leandersson, Arla’s project manager in Vimmerby.

When Adven took over the energy system in Vimmerby in 2021, it was to secure Arla’s access to steam and hot water, while saving energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Now the newly upgraded energy system is in full use and Arla is already bringing home energy savings of 30 per cent – every day.

This efficiency improvement is Arla’s largest single energy saving to date, and the long-term goal is to achieve a saving of 40 per cent, i.e. about 50,000 megawatt hours per year. This corresponds to an annual average consumption of 2,500 houses, or the energy used by Arla’s entire dairy in Götene during a year.

The last drip of fossil oil has also been replaced with HVO, (hydrogenated vegetable oil), making the plant completely fossil-free.

“This is a textbook example showing that sustainability and profitability do go hand in hand. We hope it can inspire change,” says Henrik Johansson Casimiro, SVP Adven Sweden and Netherlands.

To succeed, Adven and Arla have run several parallel projects, both in the energy plant and inside the dairy.

Adven started the work by introducing a new control system and optimizing the fuel mix. Then it was time to improve the entire system and increase the power of the plant. In Vimmerby, it was a matter of making use of the flue gas from the upgraded wood chip boiler and feeding three large heat pumps, which increases the efficiency of the energy plant.

The next step was to introduce an RO (reverse osmosis or reverse osmosis) solution, which has long been used in water treatment. In milk powder production, the RO “filters” the water out of the milk more efficiently than other methods. The difference results in an optimization of the milk flow, which in turn increases Arla’s capacity by about 20 per cent.

“The work on energy efficiency is completely in line with our climate work. We are proud of now being around 95 per cent fossil free at our eleven Swedish dairies, and in this work, Vimmerby is a crucial piece of the puzzle,” says Victoria Olsson, Head of Sustainability at Arla Sweden.

Today, Arla Vimmerby is one of Europe’s most modern milk powder plants. Its 100 employees produce around 1,300 tonnes of milk powder every week, which is sold to other food manufacturers that make baked goods, baby food and dairy products, among other things. A large part of the milk powder is shipped out to different parts of the world.

For more information, please contact:

Adven, Henrik Johansson Casimiro, SVP Adven Sweden & Netherlands, henrik.johanssoncasimiro@adven.com, +46 730 49 93 21
Arla Sweden’s Press Office, 070-884 42 90

About Arla

Arla is an international dairy company and cooperative society owned by approximately 8,000 dairy farmers in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Arla Sweden is home to classic brands such as Arla Ko, Bregott, KESO® and Pucko. Arla is the world’s largest producer of organic dairy products and one of the strongest players in the international dairy world, with sales in 146 countries. Arla’s eleven dairies in Sweden buy 100 per cent renewable electricity and all of its own heavy transport is fossil-free.