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Utilisation of waste heat from food factories 
Food processes use energy, some of which is inevitably lost. A research project quantified sources of usable waste process energy from food manufacturing operations and investigated technologies for its recovery and conversion into usable power. Ten different manufacturing sites were visited to gather information on energy consumed (electricity, gas, oil) and sources of waste process energy, and to characterise the waste heat streams (flow rate, temperature, phase, contamination, accessibility). Whilst recovery from some streams was limited because they were intermittent or contained particles or contaminants that may cause fouling of a heat recovery device, it was established that hot air waste streams generally possessed a recoverable quantity of energy, even when the temperature was relatively low. Two follow-up research proposals were developed to take this further. One focused on recovery of heat at high temperatures whilst the second looked at technologies more suited to recovering waste process heat at lower temperatures. The latter involves new heat engine designs and should enable food companies to recover energy from air or water streams. Contact: Gary Tucker |