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A cool carbon reduction solution

15 August 2021

Suzanne Gill reports on the role that refrigeration systems can play in reducing overall energy consumption, helping food and beverage companies achieve more sustainable production practices. 

A recent independent report published by the Climate Change Committee concluded that the UK is struggling to keep pace with climate change impacts. Added to this news comes the expectation that later this year leaders at COP26 will call for more ambitious carbon reduction targets, requiring industry to focus on harnessing innovation in a bid to drive down carbon emissions. So, now really is the time to start thinking about your organisations journey to net zero, as we also gear up to meet the UK Governments recently announced ambitious new climate change target – to reduce emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels – which will take us more than three-quarters of the way to reaching net zero by 2050.

“As more companies start their journey to net carbon neutral it makes sense to focus on areas within a factory that consume the most energy – in food production, this can often be the refrigeration system,” said Mark Culley, group sales director at JD Cooling. “There is no getting away from the fact that refrigeration systems, which are a vital component of most food factories, are power hungry.”

Traditionally, refrigeration systems have also been energy wasteful – removing heat from products in a chamber and rejecting it to the atmosphere.  It makes very good sense, therefore, to recycle this heat and use if for other applications around the plant. “The wasted heat can, for example, be used to produce hot water for use in factory processes,” said Culley.

Further benefits of adding a heat pump directly to the refrigeration system comes from the savings made from reductions in fan power and/or water usage which would have been used to reject this heat energy. If a perfect situation existed, and all energy which would have been expelled is able to be recovered, the ‘power hungry’ refrigeration systems which consume more power in summer due to higher ambient temperatures would be unaffected by the weather dynamics, increasing energy savings. A thoroughly planned heat pump application and site review of working methods could remove the need for a gas boiler on site if there were no requirements for steam.  

Of course heat recovery systems are only viable if you can make use of the heat. So, the first stage of any project is to gain an understanding of the expected benefits – how much hot water is needed and at what temperature – to ensure a timely return on investment. 

A heat pump needed to distribute recycled heat from a refrigeration system can be provided on a skid. Offering an example of the space this may require in a factory, Culley estimates that a 1.7Mw package, generating 1.7MW of heat will require a skid of around 3m x 6m.

The solution does work well in dairies, where the product needs to be chilled at intake and then heated and cooled. It is possible to harvest the waste heat from both the pre and post-cooling stages and reuse this at the pasteurisation stage. 

Projects
JD Cooling is working on an increasing number of projects such as this. “We are, for example, working with one dairy company who is aiming for net carbon neutral on one of its sites. It  is looking to utilise heat transfer technology from its refrigeration system, eliminating the need for LPG as a power source. This heat transfer application is expected to save the company over £300,000 every year in LPG costs,” said Culley.

Looking to the future, Culley expects that refrigeration heat transfer technology will eventually connect to district heat mains in the ground, which will then be able to feed stored heat when needed for use in a variety of different heating applications, both on and offsite. 

In conclusion Culley points out that industry will at some point need to make an investment to meet legislative requirements.  “The food industry needs to start thinking about, and planning for, Net Carbon Zero now.  It is far better to do this at your own pace than to be pressured into making costly decisions further down the line.

“Don’t leave it too late,” warns Culley. “The sooner you invest, the sooner you will start reaping the benefits. An additional benefit, of course, coms from meeting the growing corporate social responsibility (CST) expectations of customers and consumers.”


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