Traditionally reliant on fossil fuels and energy-intensive processes, F&B producers are under increasing pressure to optimize resources and increase energy generation from renewable sources. This comes amid rising operational expenses, including the cost of raw materials, as well as new CO2 taxes and fees for wasted water. Finding solutions to these challenges will be key, with businesses looking to their supply chains and manufacturing processes to help achieve cost savings.

Complementing its resource-efficient equipment and services portfolio, Tetra Pak’s Factory Sustainable Solutions embody a systematic, factory-wide approach. Solutions can be integrated at any stage to recover and reduce the consumption of resources, such as energy, water and chemicals. Optimized resource consumption reduces long-term operational costs and related greenhouse gas emissions, while supporting compliance against ever-tightening sustainability standards.

The Tetra Pak Factory Sustainable Solutions team will support customers by finding the right technologies and integration solutions for their needs, advising them on the best practice setup for their line or facility. This results in a tailored pipes and installation diagram that z water, energy and CIP according to the specific needs of the customer’s operations.

Tetra Pak’s Factory Sustainable Solutions offering includes:

• Nanofiltration, which reclaims caustic cleaning liquid used for CIP. This solution, developed by Tetra Pak, allows for the recovery of clean chemicals and water for future re-use, enabling up to 90% recovery of the total spent liquid.
• Reverse Osmosis, which uses proprietary membrane filtration technology developed by Tetra Pak to improve resource efficiency across multiple applications, including milk separation and water re-use.

Tetra Pak is also collaborating with technology partners to offer additional solutions, including:

• HighLift heat pump technology, in collaboration with Olvondo Technology A/S, which can be integrated into operations to facilitate the reuse of waste heat to produce steam across plant equipment, including the Tetra Pak Direct UHT unit, at  pressures up to 10 bar.
• High temperature heat pumps, in collaboration with Johnson Controls, which up-cycles process waste heat to use elsewhere in the factory.    
• Solar thermal collectors, in collaboration with Absolicon, which utilize the sun as an unlimited source of clean and renewable energy, to power the delivery of hot water and steam – at temperatures above 150°C – making it suitable for UHT applications.         

“This launch is an incredibly exciting and significant milestone for us at Tetra Pak, especially our team who have been working hard to push the boundaries of the impact and value such an approach can bring for our customers,” says Nicole Uvenbeck, director, Factory Sustainable Solutions and OEM Components, Tetra Pak. “To date, we have mainly focused on machine and line optimization, and we came to realize the overwhelming benefit of replicating this at a factory level, providing a more holistic approach to optimization. Factory Sustainable Solutions is an evolution of our expertise, spanning water, energy and CIP recovery. All of this combined will redefine how we support our customers in achieving their sustainability ambitions, while reducing their operational costs.”