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Advanced design from GEA for Saudi Arabia’s most modern dairy processing plant

19 Jul 2018

GEA has worked with Almarai Company in Saudi Arabia to build the nation’s largest and most modern dairy processing facility. The new plant at Al Kharj includes multiple production lines for a wide range of milk and yoghurt products. It has the capacity to process two million liters of milk a day. The project has already been successfully completed and the plant is in operation.

The Almarai plant at Al Kharj in Saudi Arabia

The Almarai plant at Al Kharj in Saudi Arabia: the nation’s largest and most modern dairy processing facility. (Source: Almarai/GEA)

Valve cluster installations

GEA valve cluster installations at the Almarai plant at Al Kharj (Source: Almarai/GEA)

Key features of the plant at Al Kharj include GEA separators with integrated direct drive that have fewer moving parts and so reduce friction losses. They also use asynchronous motors that are extremely robust for maximum machine availability. To reduce the environmental impact and energy consumption, the plant is equipped with GEA’s latest energy recovery technology.  

Furthermore, GEA has built in the latest control systems and operating protocols in line with Industry 4.0.  These include the interoperability of the equipment, the transparency of information, autonomous decision making where possible and the highest level of technical assistance. GEA’s Management Execution System captures data such as KPIs and utilization levels to allow comprehensive monitoring of the entire plant operations and energy usage. The plant also features end-to-end track and trace for ultimate quality control and a plant-wide uninterruptable power supply.

Torben Jul Jensen, Regional Sales Director for Dairy, Beverage and Food solutions at GEA Middle East, said that despite GEA’s experience in building similar dairy plants worldwide, the Al Kharj plant did pose some specific challenges, especially in the final commissioning phase.  “However, everyone involved in the project, including all the Almarai stakeholders, worked well together to bring the project in on time,” he explained.  The climate had played its part, too. “It was so hot that we had a midday ban during the peak summer season, however, by working together as a collective team side by side with Almarai the project was delivered successfully,” he added.

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À propos de GEA

GEA est un des principaux fournisseurs de l'industrie agroalimentaire et d'autres industries, qui sont à l’origine d’un revenu consolidé qui a atteint près de 4,9 Mrd EUR en 2019.

C’est un groupe international spécialisé dans les machines et les installations, ainsi que dans les technologies de procédés et composants. GEA fournit des solutions énergétiques durables, utilisées dans des process de production de pointe pour divers marchés, et offre une gamme complète de services. Le groupe réalise près de 70 % de son revenu dans l'industrie alimentaire et des boissons, un secteur caractérisé par une croissance durable de long terme. Au 31 décembre 2018, la société employait plus de 18 500 personnes dans le monde. GEA est un leader du marché et des technologies dans ses secteurs d'activité. La société est cotée sur l'indice boursier allemand MDAX (G1A, WKN 660 200), sur l'indice STOXX® Europe 600 et sur des indices de durabilité globale MSCI sélectionnés.
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