Industrial electrification is bearing fruit

Photo: Danfoss
Photo: Danfoss

In a fruit-processing plant in the Netherlands, industrial heat pumps are capturing heat from refrigeration and reusing it for hot water and steam for processing.

Fruit processing requires both cooling and heat. Kervo’s facility uses refrigeration for cold storage, while hot water and steam are needed for the production process. So using a heat pump allows the process to become much more efficient.

Paul Vossen, Kervo’s owner said:

“It was a great idea because you’re using the lost energy, that was going into the air before, for heating.”

Using Danfoss technologies, manufacturer and installer Servex designed a system that combines transcritical CO₂ refrigeration with R600a and R600 heat pump stages, with 800 kW heating capacity.

The idea was also to be able to easily scale up as needed. Additional units can be added as more capacity is required.

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