BOTTLING / FILLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 11/21 www.petpla.net 30 Carbon-neutral juice production plant for Innocent Scrutinising every step Gea Group AG has provided Innocent, a leading European smoothie and juice brand, with the process technology for a carbon-neutral juice factory. The new factory in the Netherlands is intended to lead the way for future plants in the food industry with a sustainable approach. Located at the Rotterdam Food Hub, the production facility is scheduled to open officially in spring 2022. In the new-build project, Gea, as key project partner, is responsible for the process, refrigeration and heating technology. Early involvement in the design planning phase enabled the company to develop numerous process changes that help Innocent on the path to reaching its climate goals. Gea and Innocent recently won gold in the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) People’s Choice Award for the smart heat pump design. Gea CEO Stefan Klebert says about the project: “Not only have we integrated the most resource-efficient technologies, we have also entirely rethought the processes as well as the heating and refrigeration systems. Together with Innocent, we have pushed the envelope beyond standard beverage production practice.” Energy supply and demand cycle Since much of the energy used in production is for heat, Gea worked intensively on in-process energy and resource efficiency in the manufacturing process. During the planning process, the project participants scrutinised every step: Could certain processes run at a lower temperature without impacting quality? Could the water needed for pasteurisation be heated using waste heat from the refrigeration plant? What temperatures are new electric heat pumps capable of producing? Where is steam really necessary as a medium? For Innocent, Gea broke down the entire juice-making process into its component parts and then rebuilt it from the ground up. The company also applied the sustainable energy solutions (SEnS) approach. This factors heating and cooling requirements into the systems right at the planning stage, instead of after the fact when corrections are virtually no longer possible. Adapting the process on utilities demand For example, a Gea heat pump will recover waste heat from the refrigeration systems and reuse it in other process steps. The pasteurisation temperatures can be lowered from 95 °C to 90 °C – improving the energy balance by 3%. This makes it possible to fit a heat pump and thaw frozen juices with warm water instead of steam. Gea advised Innocent to use two separate heating circuits – one set to 65 °C for cleaning and the other to 90 °C for pasteurisation and sterilisation. In addition, Innocent will only cool the juices as much as is absolutely necessary because every degree that the mercury doesn’t need to fall improves energy efficiency by as much as 4%. Taking a 360-degree view of the process chain will allow Innocent to substantially cut its carbon footprint while massively influencing other parameters such as water consumption and waste generation. An example highlights the use of lemon juice rather than water as a natural seal flushing liquid, because the low pH value prevents bacterial growth. On top of that, Gea has developed an automated clean-in-place system that minimises the required cleaning surface area but also leverages Fluidor’s pioneering Fluivac technology to clean pipes with air instead of water. That allows Innocent to recover 98% of the juice from the process piping. The customer will save on water and chemical usage as well as reduce manual tasks and downtime at the manufacturing facility. www.gea.com Every year, the EHPA honours the most efficient and sustainable heat pump solutions with the Heat Pump Award. 2021, Gea and Innocent drinks jointly won gold the People’s Choice Award of the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) for the new juice factory with the intelligent heat pump design in combination with the process adaptations. (Photo: Gea)
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