Choc chip or pistachio? Two scoops or three?
Everyone loves an ice cream. But whether you swear by strawberry or relish rum-raisin, there’s nothing vanilla about the contribution large heat pumps can make to the dairy industry.
This was explored at the latest in EHPA’s Heat BIG webinar series. Dominique Silva, TRANE Technologies explained how a milk and cheese manufacturer in France is saving €125,000 per year and reduced CO2 emissions by 10%. This is because they replaced gas steam boilers and less efficient chillers with integrated heat recovery chillers and a high temperature heat pump.
There is huge potential for many other factories to do likewise. Riccardo Marchetti from the EURAC research centre explained that the food and drink sector has the second highest potential to switch to heat pumps, after paper and pulp. The market potential is 42.6 MW, which means 19,500 units could be sold altogether. Depending on the policy and technology development this could take anywhere between 34 and 128 years, his model – which was developed as part of the EU-funded SPIRIT project found.
So the potential is massive, and the technology is market mature at the right time, as the sector faces a “perfect storm”. These were the words of Simone Zanoni, Università degli Studi di Brescia in Italy. He explained that the industry is impacted by volatile milk prices but needing to deliver EU green targets – it still uses 60-80% fossil fuels. So high temperature heat pump and waste heat recovery technology can be part of the solution.
Zanoni presented the EU-funded BETTED project, which is targeting 75% primary energy savings. BETTED stands for ‘Boosting the energy transition of the dairy value chain’ and it aims to help dairy companies to use more heat pumps.
But how can dairy managers go about choosing a heat pump? Damien Casetta of Armstrong International explained some of the ways to optimise the choice of heat pump in the dairy sector, which is best as a customised process. He gave the case study of an ice cream factory and the importance of internal heat recovery.
One dairy company which is embracing large heat pumps in its processes is Friesland Campina. Hayco Bloemen explained how both for hot water and generating steam heat pumps are working well in their factories. Waste heat is captured, upgraded and recycled as steam. Since the heat pump has been installed in their cheese factory, CO2 emissions have been cut by one-third!
How to tap the potential? EHPA’s Jozefien Vanbecelaere focused on the “paradigm shift” of the EU’s shift to electrification as set out in its recent AccelerateEU plan. Making electricity more competitive compared to gas will be a key part of the EU’s next steps, which should be set out in its upcoming Electrification Action Plan, due on 15 July.
She also encouraged industrial heat pump players to apply for funding under the second round of the EU’s €1 billion Innovation Fund Heat Auction, which offers subsidies for industrial decarbonisation. The European Commission is organising a hybrid event on 7 July where anyone interested can learn more.
You can watch the ‘Say Cheese’ webinar below and see the slides here.
The next Heat BIG webinar – on the reuse of waste heat – takes place on Thursday 25 June from 10:30-12:15 CEST. Register now.
The Heat BIG webinar series is supported by Turboden.
