The Sweetest Savings: How Heat Recovery Can Lower Your Bakery's Energy Bill
For any bakery, managing operational costs is a constant priority. Between the ovens, proofing boxes, and the need for hot water to maintain sanitation, energy consumption is a significant expense. The rise in energy prices is an unwelcome reality, and cost reduction strategies are vital to staying competitive. While you see your compressed air system as a critical utility, you might be missing that it's also a significant source of energy.
What if you could use the heat your air compressor generates every day to dramatically reduce your facility's heating and natural gas bills? With heat recovery technology, you can turn this waste heat into a powerful asset.
Where Does the "Free" Heat Come From?
The concept is simple and rooted in the laws of physics. 100% of the electrical energy used by an industrial air compressor is converted into heat. In a standard installation, this heat is simply exhausted into the atmosphere. The good news is that up to 96% of this thermal energy can be recovered and put to useful work.
By capturing this energy instead of wasting it, you can significantly lower your facility's energy costs and help reduce your plant's carbon footprint.
Two Practical Heat Recovery Applications for Every Bakery
1. Generating Hot Water for Cleaning and Sanitation
Many large commercial bakeries need hot water for various processes. By using a fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger, you can capture the heat from the compressor and use it to heat water for these purposes.
For an application as sensitive as food processing, a "fail-safe" heat exchanger is recommended. These systems are designed to provide absolute protection from contamination by preventing the water and compressor fluids from ever mixing. This technology allows you to produce service water heated to temperatures up to 160°F, perfect for pre-heating boiler water and warming other liquids.
2. Space Heating for Proofing and Comfort
The warm air from a compressor can be easily ducted to provide effective space heating for adjacent facilities, workshops, or warehouses. For a bakery, this is ideal for maintaining the temperature in proofing rooms or for providing general space heating. This isn't just a benefit for winter; many parts of the country require heating during the fall and spring as well. Using thermostatically controlled louvers, you can precisely regulate the flow of warm air to maintain a desired temperature year-round.
A Recipe for a Quick ROI
Investing in heat recovery offers significant and measurable savings. For example, a 200 hp compressed air system running 8,000 hours per year could recover enough thermal energy to replace up to 26,000 gallons of heating oil or 3.65 MMcf of natural gas annually. Even a smaller 50 hp compressor with annual energy costs of $36,000 could see savings of over $6,000 for natural gas or more than $24,000 for heating oil by implementing heat recovery. While payback depends on the size of your system and local energy costs, it is often possible to see a return on investment in under two years.
Visit Us at IBIE
Going to the International Baking Industry Expo? Stop by the Kaeser Compressors booth [West #2077] to see how we can improve your energy efficiency, compressed air quality, and productivity with our full range of screw compressors (lubricated and oil-free), air treatment equipment, storage, controls, and piping. Not attending the show? Contact us today to schedule a free walk through of your air system to identify opportunities to improve your operations.
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