On Monday 2 July the official opening of the residual heat project between neighbours Lamb Weston / Meijer and Wiskerke Onions took place. After processes such as peeling the potatoes using steam peelers and pre-frying potato products, Lamb Weston / Meijer has energy left over that’s too low quality for other parts of the production process. Nearby Wiskerke Onions can use this energy to dry the onion harvest. That’s why Lamb Weston / Meijer captures this energy using heat exchangers. These heat water, which then flows to Wiskerke Onions. After the heat has been released, the cooled water flows back to these heat exchangers to heat up again in Lamb Weston / Meijer’s production process. Both neighbours save the annual energy consumption of the equivalent of 300 households.
“A unique project in which we as two agrarian companies have found each other, and are working together successfully,” says Chayenne Wiskerke, who first looked back on how the project came about. “It all started when my uncle Kees read an article in Dutch newspaper PZC that was about the surplus capital available at that time for the province of Zeeland, which would be returned to the state if it couldn’t be used for local sustainability projects. He said that was a waste, and it would have been. Could we perhaps look into residual energy of neighbour Lamb Weston / Meijer? I thought to myself, would this be possible? What are the benefits? What’s actually involved, we’re doing so well at the moment? Should we really be tinkering with this? Before I knew it, Gijsbrecht Gunter had the answers, he managed to tie up loose ends, and we were working on it. Now, almost two years later, we’re about to start our project, and we’ll be drying our onions using residual heat rather than gas.”
“We focus on both production, logistics and multiple alternative energy sources as much as possible, and we want to be an example for the sector and the province, but we’re striving to bring healthy and sustainable product to the final consumer. The residual heat project of both agrarian companies fits the social policy of the province of Zeeland focused on promoting energy transitions (reducing the use of fossil fuels). That’s why the province of Zeeland entered into a Green Deal with the central government, which granted the province a subsidy of nearly €800,000 for this project. The realisation of the project was facilitated by the Smart Delta Resources platform, a cooperation of 11 energy and material-intense companies in the southwestern Delta region, including Lamb Weston / Meijer.”
Heat exchange
As soon as the new installation was taken into use in June 2018, both partners could measure how much energy they're saving exactly. The expected saving potential is about 500,000 m3 natural gas and reduced emissions of about 875 tonnes of CO2. Roughly, this is the annual energy consumption of 300 households. Wiskerke Onions pays the lion’s share of the investment of €1.6 million. Besides, Wiskerke Onions receives nearly €800,000 and Lamb Weston / Meijer about €13,000 in subsidies from the Province of Zeeland.
Deputy Ben de Reu from the province of Zeeland says the cooperation between the two internationally operating agro-food companies is unique globally. “With this subsidy from the Green Deal, this project becomes economically profitable,” he says. “Without subsidies, the time to recover costs is too long, and this residual heat system wouldn’t be feasible. The residual heat coupling, and all related energy savings, would then not be realised. The facilitation in project development by the Smart Delta Resources platform was important support.”
“The project is a win-win situation for both companies, particularly considering innovation in sustainability and striving for circular management, but also when looking at the finances, meaning the increasing gas costs in coming years,” Chayenne says. “Wiskerke Onions has as its aim striving to be the most sustainable player in the global onion sector. Due to global climate developments, we’re dealing with an increased growth of Dutch onions. It’s therefore becoming more important that we as companies invest smartly in sustainable development to provide for this future growth without further burdening the environment.”
Photos: Daan Sturm