Wednesday 27 May 2020

GEA and innocent to build carbon-neutral juice manufacturing plant in the Netherlands

GEA and innocent have partnered to build a carbon-neutral juice manufacturing plant in the Netherlands.

The new facility which will be built under a $250 million (£202m) investment will hinge on a sustainably designed process and green technologies from food industry technology supplier GEA, with a focus on maximising energy, resource efficiency and reducing waste.

Innovative practices regarding handling raw materials, mixing, pasteurisation and efficient refrigeration will be followed throughout the production of the facility.

A GEA heat pump will recycle waste heat from the refrigeration systems and reuse it in other process steps, such as heating for pasteurisation.

GEA has also developed solutions for the process equipment, which will save on water and chemical usage, as well as reducing manual tasks and equipment downtime.

Scheduled to open in 2021, the innocent facility will produce 400 million bottles of juice every year for the European market, which amounts to about 60% of the company’s annual production.

Stefan Klebert, CEO of GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, commented: "Constructing the plant at the Rotterdam port also means saving on millions of road transportation miles each year, which will cut the company’s annual supply chain mileage by 25%.

"innocent estimates that this one, carbon-neutral plant will allow it to cut its overall carbon footprint by 10%."