Limiting energy expenditure at Bonduelle
Reducing energy expenditure allows us to always be more environmentally responsible!
Imagine yourself in the kitchen while your meal simmers on the stove. To prepare vegetables, you need water to wash them, cook them, heat to transform them or can them, cold - freezer or fridge - to store them. Now, imagine all of this but at the scale of a factory which transforms several tons of vegetables per day, whether for ready-to-eat products, cans, or frozen goods - you’d feel fizzy from just imagining the electricity bill!
As reminds Antoine H. - R&D project manager and energy expert at Bonduelle: “Since water and energy are intrinsically linked in industrial buildings, looking for solutions so that our 50-something agro-industrial sites consume less water, energy, electricity and natural gas is an inherent part of our approach to limit environmental impact. Reducing gas and electricity consumption not only allows to decrease the energy bill, it allows to lower CO2 emission in the atmosphere which is crucial to fight against global warming.” However, between canned and frozen goods and fresh produce, the energy needs are different: “some solutions are proper to a specific trade, others to different technologies, finally others are about the building itself and its environment.” Hence, the requirement to limit energy consumption on more than one level.
Indeed, two essential levers allow to lower the carbon footprint of production plants. First, lowering consumption goes through various actions: from staff awareness to modifying equipment settings as well as swapping equipment for less energy consuming ones. “We also work a lot on energy recovery, that is utilizing what’s emitted for prime use on another process” explains Antoine.
Modifying energy sources is also on the agenda. If processing plants more often use gas, frozen food factories use more electricity which can be renewable. Thus, in 2019, the Santarém factory in Portugal set up a 5000 sq.m. roof with over 3000 photovoltaic solar panels reducing its energy buys by 8% a year (saving about 1200 megawatts) while accelerating the decline in its CO2 emissions (570 tons a year). Methanation is what allows the Estrées-Mons factory to value agricultural waste. It also brings biomass to this frozen and canned vegetable production factory turning it into a virtuous circle.