Comes up with energy-efficient heat pump solution for UK dairy

At its annual awards presentation, the English trade magazine, Food Processing presented its Innovation Prize to GEA Refrigeration, UK, a sales company of GEA Refrigeration Technologies. Announcing this, GEA claimed that it distinguished itself in the field of Energy Management, one of nine categories of the awards, with a plant concept for simultaneous and energy-efficient provision of refrigeration and heat. This solution was presented in the form of installation for Robert Wiseman Dairies (RWD) in Manchester, avowedly the largest producer of fresh dairy products in the UK, GEA informed.

Robert Unsworth (right), Director of Sales and Product Development, and Mark Culley (left), Technical Sales Manager at GEA Refrigeration UK Limited, accept the 2012 Food Processing Award from Jason Robinson of Xylem for the category of Energy Management. (Source: IML group)

It elaborated the process: In all six plants of RWD, refrigeration is a major and critical factor for assuring the freshness and quality of dairy products made by the company. At the same time, heat is also required at these plants for pasteurisation of milk. Instead of generating heat (in the form of hot water) in a gas-fired boiler and providing refrigeration separately by means of a traditional refrigeration system, RWD in its Manchester plant now employs a combined solution, making use of a compound heat pump skid which acts as a “bolt-on” to the ammonia refrigeration system.

This heat pump skid is able to supply hot water at approx. 80°C at hugely improved efficiencies, whilst simultaneously improving the efficiency of the refrigeration system.

The overall result is tremendous energy savings, GEA claimed, and pointed out that the system also has the added benefit of significantly reducing CO2 emissions through not only the reduction of electrical power consumption, but also because of the reduced need for gas heating.