With humans consuming resources and generating waste more rapidly than ever, the Earth is imploring us to reconsider our age-old, linear economic model of “take, make, consume, throw away.” The planet’s own circular model of reuse and regeneration offers a healthy alternative and way forward. And although many economies remain a long way off, the transition towards circularity is under way.

Circularity in manufacturing can be relatively simple. A glass bottle, for example, is 100 percent recyclable; it can be melted down and formed into a new one. But in the case of a 3,000 kg GEA Decanter, it’s a bit more difficult to imagine how a mass of steel – with its finely tuned components and state-of-the art electronics – fits into the circularity concept. 

Evolving our business model

In the traditional linear economy model, a manufacturer’s responsibility more or less ends once their product is sold and leaves the premises. Under the circular model, it’s a (much) longer-term relationship. GEA Life Cycle Service supports customers throughout the entire life cycle of their installed systems and components – from project engineering, installation and commissioning to maintaining and improving machine and plant performance.

The integration of digital solutions, including the latest automation and control solutions, is key to improving efficiency and promoting longer lifespans for GEA machines. By connecting to customers’ plants and equipment, we have the transparency and operational data required to continuously optimize machine productivity and efficiency, which is why preventative assessments and repairs are frequently added to GEA service level agreements. This steady flow of machine and plant data also enhances our ability to create fit-for-purpose solutions and speed up innovation.

New plants and machines require significant investment from manufacturers. With our digital twin solutions customers can model and simulate the operation of equipment and processes throughout their life cycles before buying. Simulations can also be geared towards optimum environmental performance. And through our GEA Equipment Financing service, which includes leasing options, we make it easier for customers to invest in more efficient equipment, with optional maintenance plans to ensure equipment is always operating optimally.

Upgrading GEA machines and solutions

The single greatest opportunity to minimize GEA’s climate and environmental impact is to reduce the footprint of our machines during their “use phase”, i.e. during their many years of service performing work in our customers’ operations. By 2030, GEA commits to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the use phase of its products (Scope 3) by 18 percent. We are taking a systematic approach, generating hard numbers on the environmental impact of our solutions through product life-cycle assessments. Identifying the consumption “hot spots” of GEA solutions during the use phase provides valuable insight for customers and GEA engineers, allowing them to prioritize future design improvements.

For greater transparency on the footprint of GEA products, we are developing a Digital Product Passport. This will help our customers make better and more informed choices by providing them important details about the product, its resource use and recyclability, as well as further aspects such as traceability, supply chain visibility and compliance with standards. A key component of the EUs Circular Economy Action Plan, the product passport will be accessed by both GEA and its customers via a digital ID.

Beginning in 2023, our Add Better label will be affixed to GEA solutions, indicating when a product performs significantly better than its predecessor in terms of resource efficiency, circular economy or carbon impact. “The Add Better label highlights the progress we are making towards more resource efficient products and offers customers greater transparency,” says Sterley. “It is another way to engage and encourage customers to make progress on our respective sustainability targets.”

Helping customers use resources more efficiently in production

Our products and solutions help customers reduce and reuse waste in their processes, achieve their sustainability targets and lead their respective industries towards a greener future. On the climate front, we support customers with holistic solutions that minimize energy consumption and CO₂ emissions along entire process chains. Our heat pumps, for example, help turn waste heat into valuable energy for reuse in production processes or district heating. In emissions-intensive industries such as cement and glass production, we offer waste heat recovery and gas pre-treatment technologies, as well as carbon capture solutions to support CO2 reduction and carbon reuse.

A growing number of producers from diverse sectors can achieve near-zero freshwater withdrawals or zero-water discharge in their plants thanks to GEA. Dairy processors, for example, are saving millions of liters of water per year using GEA Separation solutions with a water-saving add on, or reverse osmosis units, which allow condensate to be collected from an evaporation plant and the water to be returned to the process, greatly reducing freshwater withdrawals.

GEA solutions are valorizing waste from land-based aquaculture, turning sewage into usable energy for heating homes, producing biogas from animal husbandry waste and bio waste, converting “waste” grain from the beer brewing process into dry pasta, and turning unsalable fruit into delicious juices – to name just a few examples. Across a range of industries, GEA is helping customers reuse and profit from their side streams or even build entire businesses on the use of waste.