Page 11 - Climate Control News Magazine December-January 2022

World News
Alfa Laval expands production
ALFA LAVAL HAS opened a new greenfield manufacturing site in San Bonifacio, Italy, for the production of brazed heat exchangers.
The new highly advanced facility includes re- search and customer training areas and will mainly supply heat exchangers.
The 31,000 m2 site in Italy is Alfa Laval's most modern and sustainable production facility yet, with rooftop solar panels supplying energy.
It has a digitalised warehouse management system to oversee the flow of materials and goods,
an advanced automated production set-up, an on- site training centre – and a lab for the research and development of new innovative products for heat pumping, air conditioning and refrigeration.
President of the company’s operations divi- sion, Mikael Tydén said the production area and logistics is 13,400 m2 in size while the office and laboratory area occupies 6,000 m2.
"The new facility marks an important mile- stone in our strategy to move towards Industry 4.0 and make manufacturing both smarter and
more efficient, across the whole production line," he said.
Tydén said Alfa Laval’s 4.0 strategy includes the integration of smart digital technology and manufacturing – with an emphasis on automa- tion, machine learning and real-time data to take production to the next level.
“With this state-of-the-art facility we are bet- ter equipped to meet our customers' needs, and together with them we will drive the develop- ment of tomorrow's product range,” he said.
Alfa Laval’s manufacturing facility in San Bonifacio, Italy.
World’s first carbon-neutral juice factory
DRINKS MANUFACTURER, INNOCENT,
has partnered with GEA to begin construction on the world’s first carbon-neutral juice factory.
The plant, which will be located in the Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, will be known as the blender.
innocent is investing $US250 million in the large-scale facility, which will produce about 400 million bottles of chilled juice every year. It is set to open mid-2022.
innocent claims this one manufacturing plant will effectively allow the company to cut its over- all carbon footprint by 10 per cent and reduce road miles by about 25 per cent – siting the blend- er at the Rotterdam port means that ingredients don’t have to travel too far when they arrive.
The new plant aims to rely on 100 per cent re- newable energy.
The ultimate goal is not just centred on reduc- ing its carbon footprint, it’s about creating a tru- ly sustainable manufacturing plant that uses as little water and energy as possible, reduces, re- uses and recycles waste, and provides a fantas- tic working environment for the 190 or so staff who will be recruited.
As the process and utilities partner for the
project, GEA will supply equipment and pro- cesses for steps including the receipt and han- dling of raw materials, through batch mixing and pasteurisation.
GEA will also contribute resource-saving cleaning-in-place, refrigeration, and automation technologies, which will play an integral role in helping to dramatically cut water use and overall energy demand, reduce waste streams and mini- mise product loss.
State-of-the-art process con- trol technologies from GEA will in addition take unneces- sary pressures off the human workforce by automatically monitoring and controlling key process parameters.
GEA utilities manager, Rob- ert Unsworth, said the compa- ny’s heat pump systems that carry out heat recycling are so efficient that it’s possible to
RIGHT: GEA’s heating and refrigeration plant technology.
completely do away with fossil fuel-burning boilers that are commonly used today in the beverage industry.
“The utilisation of heat pumps means heat generation can be provided by waste heat with minimal additional electrical power, which if provided sustainably removes the burning of fuel and therefore drops the carbon emissions to zero,” Unsworth said. ✺
CLIMATE CONTROL NEWS
DECEMBER 2021-JANUARY 2022
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