The average specific energy for liquid milk processed by the Australian dairy manufacturing industry was 130.6 kW h/kL (0.47 GJ/kL) for liquid milk and 366.7 kW h/kL (1.32 GJ/kL) for
mainly powder (Prasad et al., 2004). These values are comparable with a Canadian study, with specific energy of 169.4 kW h/kL (0.61 GJ/kL) for liquid milk and 294.4 kW h/kL (1.06 GJ/kL) for milk powder (Wardrop Engineering, 1997). Ramírez et al. (2006) also reported 305.6 kW h/kL (1.1 GJ/kL) for liquid milk and fermented products and 380.56 kW h/kL (1.37 GJ/kL) for milk powder from a Dutch study. Nicol et al. (2005) reported a difference in specific energy of 3.3 kW h/kL (0.012 GJ/kL) for a liquid milk process when 100% or 25% of milk is homogenized. The difference is equivalent to 1.1–2.6% of specific energy consumption for liquid milk production from examples above. This means that any alternate processing strategy that involves less homogenization can still result in a small overall energy savings without any major capital outlay. The energy reduction will have a direct impact on production cost savings and greenhouse gas emission reduction.