Waste heat – how food businesses can turn a conundrum into an opportunity
When it comes to wasted heat, one of the biggest challenges for the food and beverage industry is that not enough people are aware of the magnitude of the problem or opportunity it presents.
Fossil fuels have made heat far cheaper than electricity, and it is often undervalued as a result, but this era is coming to an abrupt end. For food businesses grappling with rising food production costs and slimmer margins, better heat management will become a crippling priority as gas and electricity prices per kWh will trade places over the next decade
Waste heat is both an issue and a formidable resource. In the UK, approximately 8 Petajoules (22.2 x 109 kW) of heat is lost through F&B manufacturing processes every year. And, combined with increasing pressure on businesses to reduce carbon emissions, the time to tackle the issue is now.
When it comes to surplus heat, food businesses have four options. They can use it for process or infrastructure heating, turn it into power, deliver heat to district networks, or reject it as waste.
Up until now, turning waste heat into power has proven difficult and it has not presented a compelling business case. The technology available was only able to perform the conversion at temperatures above 100°C, and poor conversion ratios resulted in impractical, decade-long payback periods.
But there’s been a step change in technological innovation, which has now enabled electrical power generation from temperatures as low as 40°C. In fact, a newly developed high efficiency heat to power (h2p) system can now generate more green power, and therefore revenue, from a 40°C source than previously possible at 120°C.
For the first time, turning waste heat into power has become a commercially compelling proposition for food businesses, now typically boasting a two-and-a-half-year CAPEX recovery period, mainly due to the vast hike in efficiency.
The opportunity for food retailers
For the F&B industry, perhaps the most straight forward application for new h2p systems is converting waste heat from CHP, industrial compressors and refrigerators in supermarkets into power. This is because these buildings are more standardized and surplus heat is often used to warm buildings and water, which is only needed during the winter months.
As the new technology matures and garners mass appeal, F&B producers, retailers and supermarkets will have the opportunity to retrofit the technology into existing refrigerator systems with little risk as these solutions work in parallel with an existing thermal flow or rejection process meaning that there is no danger of disruption. If an interruption or failure occurs, the pre-existing process comes back online automatically.
Ultimately, the technology is set to become an obvious choice for any F&B equipment supplier who rejects heats as part of their process.
The opportunity that new h2p systems brings to retailers, manufacturers and storage facilities across the F&B spectrum is profound and well overdue. Low-temperature, high efficiency h2p systems have already been proven to exceed the capabilities of alternative solutions, such as conventional ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle), by 300%.
But, by leading from the front, major food retailers have the power to scale up and drive the wide-spread adoption of this emerging technology.
The business case
Of course, it takes more than the management of a waste stream to build a viable business case. Not only does new h2p technology find a purpose for waste heat, but it also enables food businesses to monetise it.
By integrating low temperature h2p systems, food businesses can expect to recoup CAPEX costs quickly, and then generate annual savings of approximately 25%. By converting waste heat to power, food businesses can produce and use energy ‘behind the meter’, reducing exposure to unpredictable energy prices and retaining more value than a feed in tariff arrangement.
Environmental impact is also a key part of the business case for new h2p technology integration. Pressure and regulation on large food brands is growing, with many now mandated to report on carbon. And it is no longer a case of just tackling scope 1 and 2 emissions, these companies need to report and be accountable for contributions across the supply chain.
According to a report by the Food and Drink Federation, over half (55%) of manufactures are focussing on investment in carbon emissions reduction. By integrating this new technology into retail and manufacturing processes, supermarkets, bakeries and food processors, breweries, distilleries and dairies can turn their waste heat into a sustainable source of energy, reducing costs and carbon emissions at the same time.
Why the F&B industry is so important
The F&B industry has repeatedly proven itself to be open to new technologies and innovation. We’ve seen this through the growth of delivery applications, presence of automation and robotics in manufacturing, packaging and serving, and uptake of AI inventory management solutions.
In this way, the F&B industry is the perfect environment to launch and scale this new h2p technology, where quality and cost are such key drivers. When it comes to supermarkets, while there are other industrial processes that produce more heat, there is unlikely to be another use case that presents as many opportunities per square mile.
But there are incumbent industry giants taking up large market share across areas in F&B technology, for example when it comes to manufacturing compressors and air conditioning technology. Emerging technology manufacturers need to be given a way through to be able to establish innovation, like in h2p, in the sector. This is where the large food businesses can play a critical, enabling role to champion such sustainable energy opportunities.
Imagine the long-term potential for technologies such a h2p when their day-zero performance already eclipses well refined incumbents running at the apex of their capability.
