Pharmaceutical lactose pilot plant:

Production of cheese has always created large amounts of whey and therefore cheese makers have always been faced with the question” what do we do with the whey?”

There are many ways in which whey can be converted from an unwanted waste stream having a BOD of about 45000, and hence a very pollutant to environment into value added products.

One such process converts whey into various grades of lactose.

A research project with the aim to access the knowledge and technique for utilization of whey and production of pharmaceutical grade lactose has been carried out in ERC.

The outcome of the project is a pilot plant, which includes units for isolation of protein, demineralization, refining, crystallization and crystal drying.