McCain, Simplot and Lion are three of five businesses confirmed to be part of the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity (A2EP) initiative to find new opportunities in renewable energy for process heating in manufacturing.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will provide $460,500 in funding to A2EP, which has undertaken 10 pre-feasibility studies at sites across Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. Five of these sites are to be chosen to progress to the full feasibility study where it will test commercially available technologies which have not been widely used before.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said helping industry reduce emissions was the next challenge for renewable energy uptake in Australia, with significant potential to increase the application of renewable energy for process heating in manufacturing.
“A2EP’s project aligns with what ARENA is aiming to achieve through its new investment priority in helping industry to reduce emissions by supplying case studies which can be replicated more widely,” he said.
“By switching to renewable energy technologies, industries such as food and beverage processing can significantly reduce their reliance on traditional forms of energy and save money on their operating costs, thereby encouraging more companies to adopt this approach.”
Process heating accounts for the largest share of onsite energy use in Australian manufacturing, with low temperature processes “offering the greatest opportunity for displacing fossil fueled heat with renewably powered alternatives”.
Applications considered to optimise process heat in manufacturing include electrification with a focus on heat pumps powered by renewable electricity and direct renewable heating options including biomass / biogas and associated storage.
A spokesperson from Lion said: "We are carrying out a detailed feasibility study looking at the application of heat pumps to reduce the total amount of energy used on site at the West End Brewery.
"Well-designed heat pump systems are able to pump heat from a cold water system to a hot water system. Taking the heat from the cold water system makes the water colder and then adding the heat to a hot water system makes the water hotter.
"Our existing cold water system is kept cold by refrigeration compressors and the hot water is heated from a steam system. The heat pump system will produce the cold water stream and hot water stream in a much more energy efficient way, reducing the total consumption of both natural gas and electricity on site."
A full feasibility study and business case for all five sites will be complete by the end of 2019.
