The food industry is eagerly anticipating the introduction of promising technology that could make the industry environmentally friendly while simultaneously reducing costs.

Those working on a pioneering research project at Brunel University in Middlesex, England, on refrigeration technology, say it could halve carbon emissions and cut energy bills by more than 30 per cent. The new technology would help the food industry meet tough regulations on greenhouse gas reductions while controlling rising costs.
Initial results have proved to be “very encouraging.”  The combined heat and power technique, under which electricity and heat can be produced on site, can now be adapted to include refrigeration, the researchers say.
With the new combined heat, power and refrigeration system (CHRP), food companies will be able to feed waste heat produced by the generators into an absorption chiller, which will provide the temperatures to keep food frozen and chilled.
The researchers said the CHRP had the potential to compete on price with carbon, the raw material commonly used in energy production. The new technology’s environmental sustainability would make it exempt from the Climate Change Levy introduced on UK-based companies’ coal, electricity and gas bills in 2001.  The levy increased average costs by 10 per cent between 2003 and 2004, according to UK government figures.
Food processors and retailers account for 15 per cent of the national energy supply in Britain, making it important for them to exploit the ‘green nature’ of CHRP.
It is expected that a CHRP system could be launched commercially by 2007.
The researchers believe that it would take three to five micro-turbines to use CHRP to deliver the refrigeration needed for a typical large supermarket. The technology would also be useful for refrigeration in cold stores, food freezing factories and freeze-drying plants 
Already some companies in the food industry are anticipating the introduction of the system, and Kraft Foods announced it would install a $3-million combined heat and power system at its New York cheese plant. 
The Brunel research is funded by the UK government and a consortium including Safeway Supermarket.