European initiative aims to increase refrigeration energy efficiency in food and beverage industry

GEA Refrigeration Technologies has become a member of the energy-conservation project, COOL-SAVE, which was founded within the context of the pan-European programme, Intelligent Energy – Europe (IEE), the company has revealed in a communiqué. The objective of the project, GEA said, was to enhance the energy efficiency of refrigeration in the food and beverage industry. To achieve this goal, comprehensive analyses of refrigeration facilities of selected food producers have been used to collect current data, which in turn, will serve as a basis for exemplary and realistically designed measures for enhancement of the efficiency of refrigeration plants, it added.

Similar to IEE, COOL-SAVE project is also intended to strengthen the competitiveness of sustainable energy technologies with low climate impact, GEA elaborated and explained that the objective was not only to promote technical developments but also to overcome financial, cultural, and legal barriers to energy savings. A total of nine partner companies from six European Union countries are participating in the project, it added.

Giving details, the communiqué said that the project intends to increase the energy efficiency of refrigeration technology in the food and beverage sector with a goal of 15% savings for 25 companies. Future-oriented energy-saving measures are being prepared on the basis of current data and evaluations from all over Europe, targeted to achieve a payback within three years, it said. GEA Refrigeration Technologies will reportedly be responsible for the analysis of five or six refrigeration facilities in the food and beverage industry.

According to GEA, it will apply a special simulation model for the purpose, and when the project is completed in about 30 months, a guideline applicable to all the European climate regions will be published. The company claimed that it plans to make the guideline accessible to those in responsible positions in approximately 2,000 companies in the food and beverage business in order to present the options and measures for improvement of refrigeration system efficiencies. In addition, it plans to distribute the results of COOL-SAVE through trade and sector associations using workshops and communications platforms.