GEA’s Nexus integrates processing and heating/cooling solutions to minimise energy use
GEA refrigeration and heat pump plant at Wipasz — Poland’s leading poultry producer.
Source: GEA
With manufacturers constantly under pressure to cut prices to stay competitive, and a constant push from lawmakers and customers to minimise greenhouse gas emissions, GEA has released NEXUS to a wider audience to help them minimise energy use and carbon footprint.
Heating and cooling processes account for over 60% of a food processing plant’s energy use, making them the most significant area for efficiency gains and carbon footprint reduction.
By integrating processing and heating/cooling-solutions rather than treating them separately, GEA said it reduces plant-wide energy consumption by up to 30% sometimes even eliminating the need for a boiler. Already proven in the beverage and dairy industries, GEA is now introducing this approach to food processing and will present it at IFFA trade fair in Frankfurt (Germany, Hall 8, Booth G10) from May 3-8, 2025.
At its core, GEA NEXUS takes a holistic view of the heating and cooling requirements in the production process. From the outset, the individual process phases with their respective temperature requirements and phase changes in the production process as well as the technical and process-related parameters are examined in detail and reviewed together with the food producer to find the most energy-efficient solution.
GEA noted that too often, cooling is in the last part of the equation, missing key opportunities to make a real impact. Boilers and cooling systems are often oversized or the available waste heat streams are not used efficiently. For example, waste heat from cooling freshly prepared pasta can be repurposed by the heat pump to supply hot water for cooking pasta upstream – creating a sustainable, cost-effective cycle. By involving an interdisciplinary team of sustainability, cooling and process experts early in the design phase, GEA can leverage its special expertise to optimise the entire process line and achieve significant cost, energy and emission reductions for the plant.
GEA offers technical sustainability consulting services (Add Better Consulting) specifically for customers with existing production lines who are looking for assistance in assessing the potential and developing technical solutions to implement their sustainability goals. These are translated into detailed engineering designs, intelligently integrating the utility (heating and cooling) demands into the production processes. This approach benefits both greenfield projects and retrofitted process plants. When implemented during operation, the system ensures minimal downtime and delivers a fast return on investment.
This principle was brought into focus at Wipasz, Poland’s leading poultry producer. The company wished to make its production more energy efficient and sustainable and challenged GEA to achieve three key objectives: keeping the plant cool; recovering waste heat to reduce energy consumption; and creating adequate ventilation, especially in the slaughter area.
Around half the plant’s energy is used for cooling, all achieved by GEA ammonia-refrigeration systems. This includes the slaughtering and cutting areas and the temperature-sensitive chilling and freezing processes. Two heat-recovery systems with GEA heat pump as the key component now repurpose the heat from these cooling operations to provide all the facility’s hot water needs, including the heating of the offices. The boiler remains only as a back-up.
GEA’s experience has shown that integrating this approach early in the design phase of a plant, can reduce energy usage and operating costs by 30%, while CO2 and NOx emissions can be cut by up to 90%. CO2 emissions can even be reduced to zero if green electricity is used.
