Everyone loves ice cream. But whether you prefer strawberry or enjoy rum and raisin, there is no mystery in the dairy industry about the contribution large heat pumps can make. This was explored in the latest instalment of EHPA’s Heat BIG webinar series.
Dominic Silva of TRANE Technologies explained how a milk and cheese producer in France is saving €125 000 a year and reducing CO2 emissions by 10%. This is because it replaced gas-fired steam boilers and less efficient chillers with integrated heat recovery chillers and a high-temperature heat pump. There is enormous potential for many other factories to do the same.
Riccardo Marchetti of the EURAC research centre explained that the food and beverage sector has the second-largest potential for switching to heat pumps, after pulp and paper. The market potential is 42.6 MW, meaning that a total of 19 500 units could be sold.
Depending on policy and technological development, this could take between 34 and 128 years, according to his model, developed as part of the EU-funded SPIRIT project. The potential is therefore enormous, and the technology is reaching market maturity at the right time, as the sector faces a ‘perfect storm’. These were the words of Simone Zanoni of Università degli Studi di Brescia in Italy.
He explained that the industry is affected by volatile milk prices, yet needs to meet the EU’s environmental targets — fossil fuels still account for 60–80% of its energy use. High-temperature heat pumps and waste heat recovery technology could therefore be part of the solution. Zanoni presented the EU-funded BETTED project, which aims to achieve 75% primary energy savings.
