Shared Energy Infrastructure for Food Manufacturing

SmartParc, a food manufacturing park located in Derby, United Kingdom, has partnered with GEA to develop and operate a centralized energy infrastructure designed to serve multiple food producers from a shared heating and cooling network. The project demonstrates how integrated energy management and industrial infrastructure can reduce operational energy consumption while supporting long-term sustainability objectives in the food and beverage sector.

Industrial Applications and Operational Challenges
Food manufacturing facilities typically require significant amounts of heating and cooling for production, storage and processing operations. In conventional installations, excess heat generated by refrigeration systems is often rejected into the atmosphere, resulting in energy losses and increased operating costs.

SmartParc was developed as a next-generation food manufacturing hub where multiple producers share common infrastructure and utility services. The concept is designed to improve resource utilization, reduce duplication of assets and support more efficient industrial operations.

According to SmartParc, tenants benefit from access to shared facilities and a centralized energy system capable of distributing recovered energy throughout the site.

Centralized Energy System and Technical Architecture
The project's core technology is a district heating and cooling network developed in collaboration with GEA. The system captures waste heat generated by refrigeration processes, upgrades it using industrial heat pump technology and redistributes it through an energy network extending more than 11 kilometers across the manufacturing park. A key component of the installation is an ammonia-based heat pump system that enables simultaneous production of cooling and heating. The recovered thermal energy can be supplied to different facilities regardless of where it was originally generated.

According to John Burden, Director Project Sales Heating and Refrigeration Solutions at GEA UK: “Instead of rejecting heat to the environment, we designed a system that recovers it, boosts it through an ammonia heat pump, and can redistribute it to all users in the park.”

Energy Performance and Resource Efficiency
The energy center currently provides approximately 5 MW of cooling capacity and 2.5 MW of heating capacity. The infrastructure has been designed to accommodate future expansion, with available capacity expected to more than double as additional manufacturers join the site. The system is capable of operating efficiently at loads as low as 5% of its design capacity, allowing it to adapt to seasonal fluctuations in demand while maintaining operational efficiency.

According to SmartParc, the closed-loop energy model enables nearly complete utilization of recovered thermal energy. For every kilowatt of electricity consumed, the system generates approximately 3 kW of cooling and 4 kW of heating, significantly improving overall energy performance compared with conventional standalone systems.

Natural Refrigerants and Decarbonization
The installation utilizes ammonia as a natural refrigerant. Ammonia offers favorable thermodynamic properties and enables high-efficiency heating and cooling performance without the environmental impacts associated with many synthetic refrigerants. The project supports SmartParc’s objective of achieving net-zero operations by 2030 while helping tenants reduce energy consumption and operating costs by up to 30%.

Scalable Model for Sustainable Manufacturing
After two years of operation, the centralized energy center has demonstrated measurable reductions in energy use, emissions and operational costs. The project illustrates how shared industrial infrastructure, advanced heat pump technology and integrated energy management can support decarbonization strategies within the food manufacturing sector.

As manufacturers face increasing pressure to improve sustainability performance while maintaining competitiveness, the SmartParc model provides a practical example of how collaborative infrastructure and resource-sharing can improve efficiency across industrial operations.

Edited by Maria Brueva, Induportals editor – adapted by AI.

www.gea.com