Bühler and Vyncke have formed a strategic partnership to offer low-carbon-emissions food plants, aiming to either become fully carbon neutral in certain operations or cut emissions by 70 percent. 

The collaboration will massively reduce CO2 in the value chains of several segments, with the initial focus being on cocoa, oat and malt processing with others to follow further down the line. 

The partnership involves transforming biomass side streams from the F&B industry into clean energy.

Executives from both companies speak to FoodIngredientsFirst about how the partnership will scale up low carbon emissions food plants with further aims to transform biomass side streams into clean energy. 

Recovering energy from side stream products
The Swiss multinational has teamed up with the Belgian industrial firm to develop integrated solutions with which biomass side stream products are transformed into clean process energy while reducing the customers’ carbon footprint.

“Economic and ecological benefits go hand in hand. With our jointly developed solutions, we aim to reduce energy consumption for food factories by up to 70 percent,” Peter Vyncke, owner of Vyncke, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

“In addition to the CO2 saved, this is also directly reflected in our customers’ operating costs. They become more competitive, and their products can be produced in a less energy-intensive and more cost-effective way.”

Johannes Wick, CEO Grains & Food at Bühler, highlights how these joint solutions are leveraged to ensure security of supply. “Various food factories are in more remote areas and cannot rely on a well-developed energy network. That’s why we let the by-products of our production work for our customers, making them less dependent on energy suppliers.”

Why is this significant?
The dependency on fossil fuels – and with this, CO2 emissions – can decrease from 20 percent to 100 percent, depending on the raw material and side stream products. This means that in some cases, food plants can become fully carbon neutral.

Biomass by-products are generated in almost all food processes. Typical examples include the processing of grains, rice, corn and cocoa. Currently, by-products are often either used for animal feed or simply discarded.

Food manufacturers can produce a climate-neutral form of energy using biomass by-products, in line with the upcycling trend becoming more prominent across industry.

Unlike the combustion of fossil fuels, the use of biomass energy helps control greenhouse gas emissions as the only fraction released corresponds to what the plants previously took from the atmosphere during their growth, which is less than transporting the side stream products to a place wher they would be used for feed or disposal.

This creates a neutral CO2 cycle.

“This partnership is a key element in our strategy to massively reduce CO2 in the value chains of our customers,” adds Wick. “Many industries rely on our solutions to reduce their fossil fuel consumption.”

The collaboration aims to become the standard to reduce the CO2 footprint of the food industry.

How will this relate to the consumer?
Outside of energy-intensive industries, most companies have tended to view energy procurement as a cost to be managed rather than a strategic area in the value chain.

However, as transparency and sustainability become increasingly important within the F&B industry, companies and brands are looking to boost their products’ environmental credentials. They need to meet the growing demand from global consumers concerned about the environmental impacts of their food. 

This is in line with Innova Market Insights Top Ten Trend for 2021 Transparency Triumphs, which highlights how transparency is dominating consumer demand this year and how increasing transparency to meet evolving ethical, environmental and clean label consumer demands is key.

It is becoming increasingly important for food producers and others in the F&B supply chain to achieve low or net-zero in food production systems. This is also partly coming from the demands of consumers.

“The demands come both from the end consumers and our common customers. Everyone is aware that we need to produce more food on less land with less energy,” explains Vyncke.

“With our solutions, end customers can enjoy the products they love with a clear conscience because the CO2 consumption of their favorite products will steadily decrease. This is the argument we give to our customers, the food producers. And we offer them significantly lower energy costs, which reduces their operating costs and improves their margins.”

Leverage clean energy for business success
Belgian technology supplier Vyncke specializes in energy production from a wide range of biomass by-products, including industrial or municipal wastes.

The scope of biomass-based fuels available for energy production is broad, ranging from agricultural and wood residues to sludges from industrial processes, recycled wood and specially grown energy crops.

With their cooperation, Bühler Group and Vyncke address this issue to develop solutions for more sustainable food production – with holistic process chains in which energy recovery is integrated so that external energy consumption and energy costs can be reduced. 

This not only contributes to greater sustainability but also opens competitive advantages for food producers through greater energy efficiency.

Why focus on cocoa, oat, and malt processing? 
Vyncke and Wick explain how the focus on cocoa, oat, and malt processing is down to the attractive energy sources generated during production and that have so far lain unused.

“Take the example of cocoa: We offer combustion systems to convert the residue generated, cocoa shells in this case, into a sustainable and reliable supply of steam for the sterilization, roasting and grinding process,” Vyncke says.

“The most obvious business case is in all markets wher there is both availability of by-products of little value such as oat or rice husks and a production process which requires thermal energy such as steam,” Wick tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

“However, every segment is suitable for on-site energy production, but in the cases wher there is no heat required, we must even convert the biomass into electrical energy,” he notes.

“Furthermore, we can count on a large installed base in the cocoa, oats, rice, and malt segments, which are suitable due to their thermal energy intensity and the availability of by-products that are easy to process. For flour milling, we are currently performing some testing on how to convert bran into energy.”

Climate-friendly food solutions are coming to the fore with key players looking to reduce their carbon emissions and create a sustainable storytelling narrative for their marketing.

Earlier this week, Hershey unveiled a new deforestation policy that cracks down on cocoa suppliers while honing in on chocolate’s carbon emissions. 

“Today, we are far from exploiting the full potential of recovering energy from side stream products. Our goal is to reduce the energy consumption of a food plant by up to 70 percent, continues Vyncke.

Malt production case study 
One particularly important joint project will be expanding a malt production plant for Bühler’s long-time business partner, Malteria Oriental in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Malteria Oriental belongs to the Grupo Petrópolis, one of Brazil’s largest beer producers. Their brewing business requires more malt, as beer consumption in South America has grown steadily in recent years.

In malt houses, the thermal energy consumption for drying malt is enormous. In the project, Vyncke will be responsible for recovering thermal energy from biomass, a by-product of malt production.

Through an on-site energy audit, Vyncke developed a set-up to reduce the size of the energy system by 30 percent, creating savings in the total investment and the operational costs.

The new malt house is designed for a batch size of 260 tons of barley and has an annual capacity of 77,000 tons of malt. Commissioning and production are scheduled for March 2022.

Both Vyncke and Bühler have set the goal of reducing energy consumption in all new food plants by at least 50 percent by 2025. Together, both partners want to create the possibility of making malting plants CO2 neutral.

They say that the project in Uruguay is just the beginning. In the future, both partners intend to coordinate their solutions technologically in a targeted manner.