Five steps to reduce energy consumption in food and beverage production
Energy consumption and related greenhouse gas emissions rank as the top environmental sustainability issues impacting food and beverage manufacturers globally.1 Experts recognise this as a complex, multi-stakeholder challenge that calls for a multifaceted response, including greater energy monitoring, reduced consumption, operational efficiencies, and a decreased reliance on fossil fuels.
A good way to prepare for your energy optimisation journey is by evaluating the current status of your operations and finding out which areas offer the highest potential for savings. A sustainability assessment provides a clear understanding of your equipment and processes, as well as establishing a baseline from which to improve them. Working together, we can then identify your most energy-intensive processes and inefficiencies, and suggest tailored solutions.
Here are five practical steps for reducing energy consumption in your food and beverage operations.
Addressing energy consumption is not just about immediate cost savings but also about fostering long-term sustainability and resilience in your operations. We leverage the latest technology to enhance resource efficiency and drive further cost savings.
Separators, which are widely used in food and beverage manufacturing, are one area in which new technologies are helping to reduce energy consumption. Thanks to the combination of AirTight with our patented Encapt™ technology, our latest generation of separators uses up to 40% less energy compared to their traditional semi-open counterparts.2 These savings are achieved through a combination of gentle product treatment (eliminating the risk of oxygen intake) and the use of efficient pumps.
Incorporating innovative technologies in our best-practice processing lines also helps reduce energy use. By focusing on energy efficiency at the line level rather than just on individual equipment, we ensure that all components work synergistically, leading to greater overall savings and optimised performance. In these pre-configured lines, each module has been selected for its contribution to the line's overall efficiency.
For example, our best-practice line for yoghurt milk with OneStep technology combines several process steps – separation, standardisation, blending, and heat treatment – into one. With less equipment to operate, your water consumption is reduced by up to 49%, your electricity consumption by up to 41%, and your heat energy by up to 16%. This results in a 25% reduction in your carbon footprint compared to conventional solutions.3
For more energy-efficient packaging operations, the Tetra Pak® E3/Speed Hyper employs eBeam technology instead of traditional packaging material sterilisation methods. This almost eliminates the need for chemicals (a 99% reduction), and since there is no need for H2O2 preheating, heating, and drying, it lowers energy consumption by approximately a third.4
Capturing and reusing consumed energy is another good way to reduce energy consumption in your operations. Many processes generate excess heat, which, if left unutilised, can lead to energy waste. By capturing and repurposing this heat, you can reduce your overall energy consumption as well as costs.
Heat exchangers are one good example of equipment for recovering waste heat from processes like pasteurisation, cooking, and refrigeration. For instance, heat exchangers in a dairy plant can capture the heat from pasteurised milk and use it to preheat incoming cold milk. This reduces the amount of energy required for the pasteurisation process. To explain, the two chief ways of heating food and beverages are first, using product-to-water (P2W) heat exchangers, which transfer heat to the product via hot water, and second, by circulating already-heated product and harnessing its energy to heat unsterilised product (P2P). Tetra Pak has been using the P2P method of heat transfer for 20 years, with good results. By reducing the need for steam and cooling water, Tetra Pak® Tubular Heat Exchangers with P2P technology enable energy savings of up to 55% compared to comparable product-to-water solutions. What’s more, fewer tubular heat exchanger modules are needed, further reducing your total cost of ownership by up to 55%.
You can reduce both your utilities consumption and costs every single day of production by optimising your existing equipment. Based on many decades of industry expertise, we offer a comprehensive portfolio of upgrades, including retrofittable kits, pre-defined products or customised solutions, to help boost the performance and extend the service life of your production lines. Working in close collaboration with you, our experts can propose resource-efficiency-enhancing solutions for your business.
Adding a homogeniser device HD100 on your Tetra Pak® Homogenizers, for example, will minimise homogenisation pressure needs, delivering up to 26% energy savings annually compared to conventional designs.6 Similarly, replacing the pneumatic cylinders in your Tetra Pak® A3/Flex with a DIMC servo-driven toolbox can reduce your compressed air consumption by up to 120,000 m3 per year.7
Plant components such as pumps are another good place to look for savings since they often run continuously for long periods in order to maintain production processes. Pairing your pumps with a variable frequency drive (VFD) can reduce their annual energy consumption by up to 20%.8 This is because the VFD automatically adjusts the speed of each pump based on viscosity, head pressure, and flow rate.
Another energy-saving plant component are our high-efficiency agitators for tanks. Thanks to their efficient propeller design, these agitators run more slowly and mix the product better while also reducing energy consumption by up to 80%.9
While your choice of equipment will positively impact energy consumption, it is also important to consider utilities consumption at a factory-wide level. Implementing solutions for reusing waste heat and tapping into renewable energy sources can help you further improve your energy performance across your whole plant.
Our Factory Sustainable Solutions team can work together with you to understand your needs and then provide you with equipment that addresses resource efficiency more holistically while also improving your bottom line. Solar thermal modules and heat pumps are two energy saving technologies that can be implemented as part of our Factory Sustainable Solutions offer. For example, using HighLift™ heat pumps in your Direct UHT lines can reduce your steam consumption by up to 7,000 mWh while lowering your CO2 emissions by up to 2,000 tonnes a year.10
Monitoring your energy consumption allows you to track progress towards your targets over time. By integrating your operations across processing, packaging, and logistics, optimising them through automation and data insights, and connecting them to real-time production data, you can enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and make informed decisions that drive continuous improvements.
The Environmental and Energy Management module in our automation and digital platform, Tetra Pak® PlantMaster, allows you to monitor your plant’s sustainability performance and calculate the relevant operational KPIs. Gathering utilities consumption data – either from your whole plant (processing and packaging) or just a part of it – gives you the insights you need to enhance energy efficiency across your operations.
Meanwhile, Asset Health Monitoring (AHM) is a data-driven collaboration service that continuously monitors and analyses specific equipment's electricity, water, and compressed air consumption, highlighting deviations and suggesting the best response based on your current operating conditions. AHM takes a “ground-up” holistic approach, including off-the-shelf solutions for specific Tetra Pak equipment as well as customised sensor kits and user interface, and a secure network designed for your Tetra Pak equipment.
Are you interested in tailored solutions for your operations?
The above five steps are broad approaches for reducing energy use in your food and beverage manufacturing operations, with concrete suggestions for implementing them. Get in touch today, and our experts will work with you to identify opportunities for energy savings across your operations.
1 Tetra Pak Business-to-Business Research on Planetary Challenges and Their Impact on Food and Beverage Manufacturers, 2023, n= 346
2 Compared to traditional semi-open separators. Production scenario: Run time 20 hrs/day; 340 production days/yr; hot milk skimming at 55,000 l/h with including feed and booster pumps
3 Scope: from outlet of raw milk silo to outlet of yoghurt milk pasteuriser (process for surplus cream and powder systems is not included). Production scenario for preparation of yoghurt milk: 15,000 l/h, 8h x 2 per day, 300 days/yr. Product: Yoghurt milk with composition 1.5% fat, 4.0% protein and 5% added sugar according to recipe below. Raw milk 98%. Surplus cream -6%. Skim milk powder 2%. Sugar 5%. Starch 1%. Total 100%
4 Compared to Tetra Pak® A3/Speed for portion packages
5 Product: Whole milk, capacity: 20,000 l/h, annual production time 6,000 hrs, steam cost 0.04 €/kg, cooling cost 0.03 €/kWh
6 Calculations based on Tetra Pak Homogenizer 350 running 3.5% fat white milk at 200 bar, 30,000 l/h, 6,000 hrs/yr
7 Calculations based on 4,000 hrs/yr
8 By replacing a traditional solution without VFDs with 2 LKH pumps fitted with VFDs.
9 Replacing conventional agitators with Alfa Laval agitators featuring energy saving foil propellers
10 Solution considering Direct UHT Unit with two HighLift™ Heat pumps, applicable for temperatures up to 200°C, 7 bar of steam, COPh Value ~2