The overall aim of this project is to identify new opportunities for improving energy efficiency in food manufacturing and to collaboratively develop viable technical and management solutions for realising improvements.
The process energy consumption of the UK food, beverage and tobacco sector was 29.6 TWh in 2014, 12% of total energy consumption by industry in the UK, and average specific embodied energy was 516 kWh per tonne or 0.5 kWh per kg.
The realistic energy savings potential, if supported by relatively strong government policy, has been estimated by different sources respectively at a pessimistic 17% by 2030 across Europe and more optimistically 22% by 2020 in the UK.
This work involves direct engagement with large food manufacturers. A whole system perspective will be used, which takes account of the many inter-dependencies of each element of the food manufacturing system and dependencies on the supply chain and context in which the factory operates.