Energy Efficiency in Food and Drink Manufacturing

Significant Energy Using Processes in Food and Drink Manufacturing

Imagine you are a consultant specialising in energy efficiency within the food and drink sector. You may be asked to audit a range of different manufacturers within this sector, but their facilities will all tend to use energy for heating, cooling, cooking, mixing, baking, cleaning and refrigeration as well as specialised processes such as pasteurisation. In addition to the manufacturing processes, the facility will need to provide a comfortable working environment for the staff.
1. Choose one type of product (such as ready meals, cheese, biscuits, etc.) and identify the three most significant energy using processes involved in its manufacture.
2. Using a Sankey diagram, illustrate the main flows of energy into, within and out of the facility, showing the main energy conversions that take place with typical efficiencies, such as chemical energy to thermal energy. Where would you expect the main energy losses to be?
3. Comment on the suitability of renewable energy technologies for this facility.This assignment will require careful reading of the lessons used in this module as well as library research. You may find it helpful to focus your reading on case studies from the food industry.