Name: Güntner
Price range: $

Wuwei, in northwest China, features long and frigid winters. It is precisely under such climatic conditions that Yili Group, a leading dairy enterprise in China, has built a large liquid milk plant that integrates green production and high-efficiency refrigeration. By adopting a natural cold source cooling system and Güntner Dry Coolers, the Wuwei Yili plant maintains high quality of dairy products while substantially cutting refrigeration energy consumption.

Yili's Investment for a Daily Liquid Milk Output of 1,888 Tons

Pouring milk into a glass on a background of pasture with cows

Located at the eastern end of the Hexi Corridor, Wuwei in Gansu Province boasts a long history of dairy farming. Beside the desert-crossing highway in Liangzhou District lies the Wuwei Youran Animal Husbandry Dairy Farming Demonstration Park in Changcheng Village, where the breeding and feeding of 12,000 dairy cows are carried out in an orderly manner. This pasture was introduced specifically to meet the raw milk demand of Yili Group’s project with a daily liquid milk output of 1,888 tons.

At the beginning of 2019, the Wuwei Yili Green Production and Smart Manufacturing Demonstration and Application Project was signed and launched, with a total investment of 2.12 billion yuan (€26.93M) and a land area of 437 mu (291,333 sq meters). The first phase was completed and put into operation at the end of 2020, quickly reaching full capacity with high operational efficiency. In 2021, the output of Yili’s product lines including Satine, Ambrosial and Yoghurt Drink reached 124,436 tons, with an output value exceeding 1 billion yuan (€127.5M). In January 2026, Wuwei Yili achieved a monthly output value of 141 million yuan (€1.8M), a month-on-month increase of 23.7%.

A Key Component of Wuwei Yili's Green Production: Winter Cold Source System

Leveraging abundant local agricultural resources, Wuwei Yili has introduced modern, high-standard filling production lines. Meanwhile, as a demonstration project for green production and smart manufacturing, the plant has adopted an eco-friendly refrigeration system, which effectively reduces cooling energy consumption while guaranteeing premium quality of dairy products.

The system is closely tailored to Wuwei’s unique climate: the city endures prolonged cold winters, with temperatures dropping to 0°C as early as October. In February, the average low temperature falls to -12°C, while the average high temperature stands at merely 0°C. Such cold weather creates ideal conditions for natural cooling.

Core equipment includes:

8 units of V-shape VARIO Dry Coolers, supplied by Güntner, with a total cooling capacity of 7,500kW
Water chilling units, plate heat exchangers, glycol water pumps and internal circulation pumps from other renowned brands

Energy Saving Analysis of the Winter Cold Source System

At Wuwei Yili, when the outdoor temperature drops to -5°C, the refrigeration units are shut down, and cooling is solely provided by dry coolers. The 0°C glycol aqueous solution from the dry coolers conducts heat exchange with 12°C process ice water returning from the dairy production line at the plate heat exchanger. The process ice water is cooled down to 2°C and then flows back to the low-temperature zone of the ice water tank for production line use.

When the ambient temperature ranges from -1°C to -4°C, and dry coolers cannot fully meet the cooling demand, the 12°C process ice water is first cooled via the glycol plate heat exchanger, then flows into the main pipeline ahead of the ice water internal circulation pump, and undergoes secondary cooling by refrigeration compressor units to reach the required temperature of 2°C.

This design fully utilizes Wuwei's winter natural cold resources, and greatly reduces the operating hours and power consumption of refrigeration units.