The UK's largest independent industrial refrigeration engineering company.
Sean Hurley
Senior Sales Manager
07741232954
shurley@star-ref.co.uk
Food Manufacturing
Pharmaceutical & Process
Brewing and Distilling
Dairy
Heat pumps are noted as a key technology to help power the pathway towards net zero emissions for heating. This is particularly the case for the industrial sector, where heat pumps can also deliver substantial efficiency improvements by repurposing heat from existing site processes. This article deals with the practical aspects of upgrading a factory or processing facility from the use of gas (or oil) boilers that operate separately from the cooling system, to using energy efficient heat pumps that combine both cooling and heating.
The use of heat pump technology in industrial contexts provides efficiencies that are beyond the range of gas boilers, which typically operate at anywhere between 40% and 85% efficiency. Heat pumps, by contrast, are able to deliver efficiencies of 300% or higher and, where used for combined heating and cooling, can be engineered to deliver efficiencies five to ten times greater than conventional systems. They can also reduce the complexity of the system – instead of having a chiller and a boiler, only a heat pump is needed.
But how to know what heat pump and set-up is right for your business? Each facility’s requirements are unique, and there is no ‘one size fits all’ heat pump for the many different industrial processes involved across the food and beverage, dairy, bakery, brewing, distilling, paper, meat processing, chemical, leisure and pharmaceutical sectors.
This article aims to offer a guide to assessing businesses’ individual process and choosing the right heat pump and maintenance package for your requirements.
Heat Pumps for industrial applications
With the cost of wholesale energy having risen by a colossal 166% since 2018, an efficient set-up which minimises energy use and reduces waste and operating costs has never been more crucial.
Heat pumps offer businesses a practical solution for long-term decarbonisation. Providing both heating and cooling within a single system by capturing and repurposing waste heat that would otherwise be lost, heat pumps help minimise energy consumption and can replace or supplement conventional gas-fired heating systems.
Combining cooling and heating processes with a heat pump and removing the need for gas, oil or electric boilers can deliver efficiencies of up to 800% in specific processes where cooling provides great capacities. Poultry processing facilities using heat pumps for hot water and space heating have the potential to achieve energy and cost savings of up to 60%. Heat pumps have the added benefit of delivering precise temperature control and can enhance product quality and flavour in processes where consistency is critical, such as bakeries’ pre-proofing and fermentation processes, brewing and distillation, or in the chemical sector’s distillation and crystallisation processes, for enhanced separation efficiency.
As businesses work towards reducing their environmental impact, heat pumps provide a proven and scalable technology that aligns with energy efficiency goals and net zero commitments.
Heat Pump costs and benefits
From lowered operating costs and streamlined system designs to increased efficiency and reduced emissions for achieving Net Zero targets, the arguments for heat pumps are numerous. Often the only downside is the initial cost of investment.
Looking at the business process as a whole can bring tangible benefits in terms of return on investment through the integrating of cooling and heating processes via the use of a heat pump. At a food manufacturing site in England, a Star ammonia heat pump replaced both the aging cooling system and a gas boiler, delivering energy savings of over 50% and reducing costs by £1.38 million. The heat pump system is approximately five and a half times more efficient than using fossil fuels alone. With a capital investment of just under £4 million, the project achieved a payback in under three years. Since a like-for-like replacement of the original systems would have cost around £3 million, the additional investment in a combined heating and cooling solution paid for itself in less than 12 months.
Whilst the upfront cost of making the switch can be a barrier, not taking the opportunity to adopt new technology can be equally costly in the medium term. Net Zero and the need to meet Climate Change Agreement targets means making informed planning decisions or risk being left with stranded assets – equipment that becomes unusable because it is not compliant or is costing too much to operate. Additionally, there are options for funding and financing heat pump investment, which can make the transition easier.
Financial consultancies including KPMG and McKinsey have emphasised the economic risks of climate change – and the risk that businesses who take no action will be left behind. By contrast, those businesses that prioritise environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) goals often outperform their peers.
Heat pumps are an established and widely adopted technology, offering a reliable and energy-efficient solution for industrial applications. Their operation is based on the same fundamental principles as refrigeration systems, utilising compressors and heat exchangers to transfer thermal energy.
By extracting heat from one source and upgrading it to a usable temperature, heat pumps can provide both heating and cooling simultaneously within a single integrated system. This dual functionality enhances energy efficiency by recovering waste heat that would otherwise be lost, reducing overall energy consumption and reliance on fossil fuels.
Heat Pump Feasibility – Understanding energy use in a factory setting
The first step on the heat pump journey is to establish where energy is being consumed in a factory or facility. This may be data that the organisation already has access to, for example historical sub-metering readings for gas and electricity. This is extremely valuable data, both for understanding utility bills and for pinpointing how much of a particular ‘end utility’ each site process is using.
This data creates a ‘4D energy map’, showing where a business uses heating and cooling, in what form it is used (e.g. hot water, steam), when during the day it is used, how much is consumed and at what temperature.
Armed with these insights from the energy map, a business can move directly to the heat pump design phase, enabling a heating and cooling contractor to develop a heat pump solution based on the current energy behaviour and performance at the facility.
If the data to generate a ‘4D energy map’ is not available, the first step is to conduct a site survey to support the development of a low-cost feasibility study tailored to the specific needs of a business. The goal is to design a heat pump system that optimises efficiency based on the precise energy profile of the facility and its heating and cooling processes.
Conducting a site-wide survey to evaluate the current heating profile and energy consumption can be done manually, but the most accurate assessment is possible through data collection. AI-led, data-driven monitoring technology for industrial refrigeration and heat pump systems, such as Ethos, can collect key data from existing cooling and heating systems. This data is used to generate profiles of usage, temperatures and flow rates to create the 4D energy map – crucial in delivering a customised heat pump system that specifically addresses distinct business process requirements, providing optimum efficiency and reliability.
Based on the data analysis and resulting feasibility study, a heat pump solution can be engineered to match exact operational conditions, therefore reducing capital costs and operational costs.
Feasibility Study demonstrates energy and cost savings of heat pumps for food manufacturing
A recent feasibility study conducted by Star Refrigeration demonstrates the potential for substantial energy and cost savings through the incorporation of heat pump technology at one of the UK’s largest dairy facilities. The study highlights how industrial heat recovery can support the transition to a more sustainable manufacturing process.
The study highlights how industrial heat recovery can support the transition to a more sustainable manufacturing process.
Assessing Waste Heat Potential
Data was collected and analysed from site surveys and AI-driven remote monitoring technology to document waste heat sources across the site, including five refrigeration systems, four air compressors and the facility’s wastewater effluent system. By assessing the heat profile over a typical working week, the study confirmed that these sources could be harnessed to supply a new heat pump system, meeting both hot water and space heating requirements.
Proposed Heat Recovery System
To optimise energy use, the proposed solution integrated heating and cooling processes into a circular system. A heat pump and thermal store would be installed to balance variations in heat availability and demand, ensuring efficient energy transfer across the facility.
Projected Cost and Carbon Savings
Currently, the site incurs an annual energy expenditure of £4.5 million, comprising £3.5 million in electricity and £1 million in gas costs. The new heat recovery system is projected to:
These savings are expected to increase over time as gas prices rise and the cost of renewable electricity declines.
The study concludes that by implementing a two-stage heat pump system, the food manufacturing facility can significantly lower energy costs and carbon emissions while enhancing operational efficiency. This demonstrates the viability of heat pumps as a sustainable solution for the food industry, aligning with broader decarbonisation goals and net-zero commitments.
Real-World Case Study: Combined Heating and Cooling Solution for a Leading Food Manufacturer
A zero-carbon ammonia heat pump installed in a food manufacturing facility in the UK provides useful cooling of process glycol to 0oC while at the same time heating a closed loop heating system to 60oC. The system comprises four compressors on a central plant, with two of them rejecting heat to the water heating circuit when required. All four machines are also capable of rejecting heat to atmosphere through a bank of air-cooled condensers. Up to 1.25MW of heat can be recovered, with a combined cycle coefficient of performance of 5.46.
A schematic of the system is shown below:
The high discharge temperature of the ammonia compressors allows the condensing condition to be held at 59oC, with desuperheating of the discharge gas from 100oC to 59oC, providing the additional heating to raise the hot water to 60oC. The heating loop is split into two requirements: clean in place (CIP) and closed loop (product heating).
The total glycol cooling capacity of the plant is 3,300kW. About one third of this is provided by the heat pump compressors, which are configured to run as the lead cooling requirement.
Since a large proportion of the closed loop cooling duty is related to product heating the two duties are coincident and so a significant saving can be made by serving them both from the same refrigerating system. The CIP load is much less frequent but requires a significantly higher instantaneous load. This is reduced by using a hot water buffer system which is charged and discharged during normal operation. This enables the heating requirement to be better matched to the cooling load. Use of a buffer system like this also allows the rate of heat supply to the process to be far higher than the rate of heat recovery from the refrigeration system, provided the total volume supplied does not exceed the buffer capacity and the recovery time between discharges is sufficiently long.
The installation formed part of a larger site refurbishment which included the replacement of coal-fired boilers with gas burners and the removal of a bank of air-cooled chillers. The project therefore delivered several environmental goals, including reduction of emissions and removal of high GWP refrigerants as well as providing a significant increase in cooling and heating efficiency.
Funding for heat pumps
There are a number of routes for funding the installation of heat pumps depending on specific business requirements. Government funding generally helps support industrial sites with high energy use to transition to a low-carbon future, enabling:
Funding is available for:
Are heat pumps zero carbon?
Heat pumps can remove the need for gas use altogether; they are also a zero-carbon technology when charged with natural refrigerants such as ammonia and powered by renewable sources such as solar PV, hydro turbines or wind turbines. Switching from gas heating to heat pumps powered by renewable electricity enables businesses to reduce carbon emissions from their heating systems, contributing to broader decarbonisation efforts and net zero commitments.
Additionally, heat pumps eliminate the need for separate gas boilers and chillers, which substantially lowers emissions and operating costs. The Sankey diagrams below show the traditional set-up of refrigeration system and boiler (left), vs. a combined heat pump system (on the right). In both diagrams, the energy inputted is shown on the left, while its usage is illustrated on the right. The right-hand diagram shows that both energy use and energy waste are reduced – and gas use reduced to zero.
The technology itself mirrors that of a refrigeration system. It uses compressors and heat exchangers to deliver a combination of heating and cooling, simultaneously.
Mantaining reliable heat pump performance post-installation – ongoing operation and optimisation
Ensuring the long-term reliability and efficiency of industrial heat pumps requires a structured approach to maintenance and remote data analysis. A combination of scheduled maintenance and data-driven optimisation can help maximise efficiency at intended operating conditions and prevent operational issues.
Integrating manual maintenance with AI-enabled data analysis technology allows for continuous assessment of system efficiency. By applying live site data to a ‘dynamic digital twin’ of the heat pump, businesses can compare actual performance against optimal conditions, detect performance gaps and undertake corrective actions to prevent faults or energy wastage. Smart optimisation technology can also predict energy consumption trends and assess potential maintenance or operational scenarios to maximise efficiency and reduce downtime.
Conclusion and next steps
As environmental and cost pressures grow across all industries, staying ahead and future-proofing operations are becoming more vital than ever. As the Food and Drink Federation Guide, Achieving Net Zero, states: ‘Climate strategy is becoming core business strategy’
Heat pumps offer organisations an opportunity to reduce operational costs, increase efficiency and gain a competitive edge in the market. Within industry, they allow for highly efficient business expansion, meaning that facilities can substantially increase production without the need for major infrastructure upgrades.
Help Star Refrigeration accelerate industry progress toward Net Zero with advanced heat pump technology by completing the Heat Pump Research Survey at https://tinyurl.com/StarHeatPumpSurvey
Participants will receive a copy of the research report on industry-specific findings and will be entered into a draw to win a £250 voucher
This article has been CPD certified by the CPD certification service. To obtain your CPD diploma please email cpdcertificate@star-ref.co.uk.