George Weston Foods – Feasibility Study into Onsite Thermal Systems

Summary

Need

The study relates to the food and beverage manufacturing sector, potentially bringing forward investment in modernised refrigeration equipment and associated heat recovery equipment that increases renewable energy use, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and has potential for replicability to other food processing sites. 

The study site comprises three separate plant buildings. Plant 2, the focus of the study, was constructed in a number of stages and has transformed from a drystore and refrigerated storage facility to the main production building for salami and smallgoods manufacturing. 

The Plant 2 refrigeration system is complex and difficult to maintain, as well as having multiple areas where equipment is no longer suitable for its current duty (e.g., former blast freezers that now serve as thawing rooms). Plant 2 contains its own refrigeration, steam, hot water, chilled water and compressed air systems. 

Action

The study will deploy additional metering and a cloud-based data analytics platform, CoolPlanet OS, developed by Climatech Zero, to develop a visual plot of decarbonisation actions and projects against the current emissions and future targets (Net Zero Glidepath). 

Outcome

The study will achieve the following outcomes: 

• Enable a decision by the Recipient to: 
  • proceed to fund implementation of the studied project; or 
  • proceed to a more detailed engineering study (FEED); or 
  • terminate further development of the studied project; 
• inform industry with large refrigeration systems on site of the barriers to implementation of the studied project and potential solutions to these barriers; 
• accelerate uptake of similar projects across industry with large refrigeration systems on site; and 
• enable accelerated transformational improvement in industrial renewable energy and/or energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions compared to baseline or business as usual.