ENERGY SAVING FOR DAIRY NUTRITION MANUFACTURER

ENERGY SAVING OPPORTUNITIES IDENTIFIED FOR DAIRY NUTRITION MANUFACTURER THANKS TO RENEWABLES.

£5.7m*

*At current purchase price of grid electricity (2023). To be revised once AD volumes are determined, and heat pump options explored.

*To be revised once AD volumes determined, and heat pump options explored.

Volac Whey Nutrition Ltd are market leaders in providing whey ingredient solutions & pioneers in the manufacture of whey proteins and its derivatives.

Optimised were approached by Volac Whey Nutrition Ltd, as they explored methods of decarbonisation to support their net zero ambitions. A key part of this journey was the implementation of renewable technologies and on-site electricity generation to reduce the reliance on grid-import, and hence reducing costs and associated carbon emissions.

INDUSTRY

Manufacturing

Location

Felinfach

SERVICES DELIVERED

Challenge

Navigating sustainable energy transition

The manufacturing site in Felinfach, is in a prime location to support renewable generation assets due to available space, site location and long-term position in the business growth plan. This project has evaluated a variety of renewable technologies, to determine at a high-level, what other applications could work alongside the existing Biomass Plant and an Anaerobic Digestor (AD Plant) that the company are currently investigating, to support the overall site decarbonisation plans.

Solar photovoltaic systems and wind generation have been deemed suitable in assisting generating the required volume of on-site electricity generation.

A non-intrusive study was conducted across the whole of the manufacturing site and wider estate to identify any potential limitations to installing these renewable technologies.

The main site houses 4 dryers each of varying height, these are the largest energy consumers and unfortunately cause a significant amount of shading on the surrounding buildings, hereby restricting the optimal solar photovoltaic positions.

The onsite Biomass CHP can currently provide 60% of the overall energy required by the main operating site, although the presence of a large parasitic load raises a challenge. There will also be an amount of blinding of any roof mounted assets due to the CHP process exhausts which will cause increased cleaning.

The South Park site has an independent electricity supply and a large solar array. However, at the time there was no connection between the south park site and the other main site.

The north field has been designated as an area to grow trees to offset the wood being consumed by the biomass CHP system, this is beneficial but challenging as it limits the accessibility of the field for renewables.