The Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) milk plant in Garden City, Kan., has been named “Sustainable Plant of the Year” by Food Engineering magazine – a sister publication of Process Cooling – for its 267,000 ft² whole and skim milk powder-drying facility.

The award recognizes the plant’s outstanding sustainable engineering features, which were designed and built by Shambaugh & Son, L.P. The highly automated, energy- and water-efficient facility was designed to operate continuously. Plant features include: environmental safeguards such as a diffusion tank that allows trace emissions from the relief valve to be captured to ensure no contaminants are released into the atmosphere and an onsite wastewater treatment plant where water is treated and recycled for irrigation.

From the moment a tanker truck enters the plant, it takes less than 68 minutes to off-load the milk, clean the truck and test the milk.