Trade press release

GEA Sustainable Engineering Solutions significantly improve plant efficiency and reduce CO₂ emissions

11 Feb 2021

Due to a growing number of rules and regulations and its own climate targets, there is an absolute need for the industry to reduce its carbon footprint and become more energy efficient overall. With cooling and heating traditionally accounting for anywhere between 50 and 90 percent of a plant’s entire energy consumption, it’s the ideal starting point for GEA’s SEnS initiative.

GEA SenS - Sustainable Engineering Solution
Kai Becker, CEO – GEA Refrigeration Technology (Photo: GEA)

Kai Becker, CEO – GEA Refrigeration Technology (Photo: GEA)

Potential energy savings of up to 30 percent and a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions by as much as 90 or even 100 percent:
GEA’s Sustainable Engineering Solutions (SEnS) offering integrates processes and utilities (refrigeration and heating) solutions, allowing GEA experts to develop optimization strategies for customers in diverse industries.

Numerous successfully completed SEnS projects from GEA show:
These optimizations reduce the customer’s energy footprint and running costs, without compromising output or the bottom line.

According to the United Nations, energy efficiency offers a potential 40 percent of the emission reductions required to help meet global climate goals.

Due to a growing number of rules and regulations and its own climate targets, there is an absolute need for the industry to reduce its carbon footprint and become more energy efficient overall. With cooling and heating traditionally accounting for anywhere between 50 and 90 percent of a plant’s entire energy consumption, it’s the ideal starting point for GEA’s SEnS initiative.

Unique SEnS approach helps customers to achieve their climate goals

Ulrich Walk, Chief Service Officer (CSO) – GEA Refrigeration Technologies (Photo: GEA)

Ulrich Walk, Chief Service Officer (CSO) – GEA Refrigeration Technologies (Photo: GEA)

GEA’s unique SEnS offering is a culmination of a broad processing portfolio and years of industry know-how combined with extensive refrigeration expertise. “SEnS supports customers in the food processing, dairy and beverage industries, helping them achieve their climate goals by making them more sustainable,” comments Kai Becker, since February 1, 2021, CEO Refrigeration Technology Division. As a global industrial technology provider, GEA will continue to strengthen its SEnS offering in 2021.Using the SEnS approach, GEA will promote the increased adoption of sustainable solutions which drive down energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions while helping customers from diverse industry sectors slash their operational costs.

Typically, process plants are designed in a way that separates processes from utilities (cooling & heating), rather than considering them as a whole. Customers often place tremendous focus on the design or optimization of a particular process, overlooking the bigger picture. GEA combines these two parts and ensures that they work well together.

“GEA has developed a structured holistic and proven approach that begins with analyzing the customer’s precise energy requirements, then making process optimizations and including utilities in the equation. By connecting heat pump technology to manufacturing processes, the GEA experts ensure energy is moving circularly, rather than being wasted”, says Ulrich Walk, Chief Service Officer (CSO) – Refrigeration Technologies.

Cross-functional teams and one point of contact

Each GEA SEnS project includes a single point of contact enabling customers to achieve genuine and proven reductions in energy consumption and their carbon footprint. The SEnS process is backed up by a cross-functional engineering team with experts from dairy, food or beverage processing as required, as well as team members with refrigeration (heating & cooling) expertise in diverse processing industries. Each project considers the customer’s business parameters and ambitions, formulated as measurable KPIs, against which the installation must deliver.

Involvement at an early stage in the planning process

When it comes to plant upgrades, GEA recommends that customers should integrate the GEA experts as early as possible in the design process. Doing so can mitigate potential frustrations later on as the solution will be more closely aligned with expectations at a very early stage. Another big advantage: This early involvement will lead to more cost-efficiency. “GEA has decades of experience helping customers improve the efficiency of their plants – and now the process has been made even easier”, concludes Becker.

Media Relations

GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft

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Germany

+49 211 9136-0

About GEA

GEA is one of the world’s largest suppliers of systems and components to the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. The international technology group, founded in 1881, focuses on machinery and plants, as well as advanced process technology, components and comprehensive services.

With more than 18,000 employees, the group generated revenues of about EUR 5.4 billion in more than 150 countries in the 2023 fiscal year. GEA plants, processes, components and services enhance the efficiency and sustainability of customer’s production. They contribute significantly to the reduction of CO2 emissions, plastic usage and food waste. In doing so, GEA makes a key contribution toward a sustainable future, in line with the company’s purpose: ”Engineering for a better world“. GEA is listed on the German MDAX the European STOXX® Europe 600 Index and is among the companies comprising the DAX 50 ESG, MSCI Global Sustainability as well as Dow Jones Sustainability World and Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Indices.
 
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