5 Energy Conservation Strategies for Food and Beverage Plants

A food processing operation requires more energy than some may realize. Unless you’re the plant owner paying the electricity bill, you might not have considered how much energy is needed to keep things running. Food production (agriculture, transportation, processing and handling) accounts for nearly 20% of all fossil fuel use in the United States, and 16% of that energy is used for food processing alone.

While utility costs are inevitable, there are strategies to make food and beverage plants more efficient and save money in the long run — though they often require an upfront investment. Energy savings are a long-term payback; it’s important to keep that in mind when building a plant or modifying a current one. 

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Protect Your Food Processing Facility from Dust Explosions

The Imperial Sugar dust explosion of 2008 was a tragic reminder of the potential for common food processing ingredients to cause unneeded loss of life and property in a food plant. 

While it’s not feasible to ditch dusty ingredients like sugar, flour and cornstarch in most food processes, you should be aware of the danger particular ingredients create and formulate a plan to keep your workers and plant safe.

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Best Practices for Developing a Food Processing Plant Utility Matrix

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Every single piece of equipment in a food processing facility – from processing equipment to compressors, chillers and the machine room – requires some form of power whether it’s electricity, steam, hot water, or compressed air. Determining the utility requirements of the plant’s operating systems is a critical part of the design process that involves the plant’s owner, as well as the mechanical and electrical engineering team.

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