GEA NEXUS emissions reduction solution

GEA NEXUS is a holistic engineering solution designed to minimise energy use and carbon footprint in food, dairy and beverage industries. By integrating processing and heating/cooling-solutions rather than treating them separately, the company said it could help to reduce plant-wide energy consumption by up to 30%, sometimes even eliminating the need for a boiler.

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.

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 use its expertise to optimise the entire process line and achieve cost, energy and emission reductions for the plant.

This principle was brought into focus at Wipasz, a poultry producer in Poland. 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 said that its 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.

GEA will present further details about this approach at IFFA trade fair in Frankfurt from 3–8 May 2025.

Image caption: GEA refrigeration and heat pump plant at Wipasz. Image credit: GEA