Kraft Heinz Blast Tunnel Optimisation
Kraft Heinz - Christchurch
Blast Tunnel Optimisation
820,000 KWh Annual Electricity Savings and 94% Reduction in Missed Product Temperature
Problem
Kraft Heinz Christchurch freezes a lot of vegetable product in blast freezer tunnels, which is a very energy intensive process as a large number of fans are required to push cold air through the product.
Kraft Heinz recently made a significant investment in VSDs to take advantage of the large energy savings potential. Unfortunately the energy savings came at a cost as reducing fan speeds increased occurrences of product temperatures missing targets.
DETA Consulting were contracted to optimise the use of fan VSDs.
Solution
Through analysis it was found that occurrences of missed product temperature targets were intimately linked to the defrost-in-progress system that was used to keep the tunnels operational for longer periods of time.
Load matching fan speed schedules were developed for each tunnel. The scheduling was able to offset the negative impacts of the defrost-in-progress on product temperature while achieving significant energy savings.
Outcome
Reduction in missed product temperature targets of 94%.
Energy savings equivalent 0.82 GWh per annum were achieved across three tunnels, resulting in energy cost savings of $86,400 per annum.
Payback of <3 months on optimisation project.
