Unilever – Feasibility Study into Decarbonisation of Manufacturing Facilities

Summary

Need

The Study is relevant to the food manufacturing market with potential replication across Unilever’s 300 factors worldwide and other hygiene and food manufacturing sites in Australia.  

Action

Unilever will deploy a simulation tool, to develop a site-by-site emission reduction pathway through technology-economic optimisation. The tool will perform a simulation of energy demand and supply using hourly energy data, which allows for an examination of various energy vectors. An optimisation engine will be employed to determine the most cost-effective combination and sizing of levers and technologies required to achieve target emissions. Examples of renewable energy technologies applicable to Unilever’s operations include heat pumps, thermal energy storage, energy demand, solar thermal, biomass and biomethane boilers. The results will include projections of emission reduction, operational expenditures, capital expenditures, total cost of ownership, and return on investment. 

Outcome

The Study will achieve the following Outcomes: 

 (a) enable a decision by the Recipient to: 

     (i) proceed to fund implementation of the studied Project; 

     (ii) proceed to a more detailed engineering study (FEED); or 

     (iii) terminate further development of the studied Project; 

 (b) inform the manufacturing industry of the barriers to implementation of the studied Project and potential solutions to these barriers; 

 (c) accelerate uptake of similar projects across the food manufacturing industry; and 

 (d) enable accelerated transformational improvement in industrial renewable energy and/or energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions compared to baseline or business as usual across manufacturing facilities.