Food & Beverage

Improving the Performance and Efficiency of Process Heat

Thermal Energy International works with the world’s premium Food & Beverage producers to decarbonise, cut fuel use, reduce Scope 1 emissions, and improve the stability of steam and hot water systems. With more than 30 years of industrial experience, we combine process understanding with proprietary thermal technologies to deliver practical, repeatable solutions that scale across diverse facilities and production networks.

Food and Beverage processes and products

Reducing Fuel Use from Process Heat

Food & Beverage manufacturing facilities place sustained demand on steam and hot water systems, with high thermal loads, variable production profiles, and ageing utility assets driving significant fossil fuel consumption and operating cost. Electrification, with or without heat pumps, is a high capital and operating cost path to this same goal, but should be the final step to decarbonisation.

Food & Beverage conditions create well-defined opportunities to recover waste heat, improve system efficiency, and strengthen on-site thermal resilience across corporate portfolios, providing substantial reductions in operating costs and reducing carbon emissions.

Featured Project

Bridging Corporate Strategy with Site Delivery

Our long-term partnership with one of the world’s largest Food & Beverage groups demonstrates how ambitious sustainability strategies can be translated into practical, validated site-level projects across a highly diverse manufacturing footprint.

This multi-division programme covers numerous production categories and facility types, with solutions tailored to each site's thermal load profile, waste heat characteristics and operational constraints.

Single Case Study Hero Module (822x785) (1)

Supporting Diverse Food & Beverage Processes

We have proven success across diverse Food & Beverage operations, applying repeatable solutions that deliver reliable efficiency gains across global portfolios, with capabilities that extend to many additional applications. The sub-sectors below represent a selection of processing environments where these solutions are routinely applied.

Meat Processing
Meat Processing
Scalding, sterilisation and high-volume washdown require consistent hot water supply. We improve hot water efficiency, reduce steam loss and support hygiene-critical operations with stable, low-carbon thermal supply.
Dairies
Dairies
Pasteurisation, evaporation, spray drying and CIP drive constant thermal load. We recover waste heat and optimise steam and hot water systems to reduce boiler load, improve capacity and deliver measurable emissions reductions.
Snacks
Snacks
Fryers, ovens and dryers release large quantities of latent and sensible heat. In particular, the high latent heat exhausts of these processes provide an opportunity for MVR to close the thermal cycle around distillation and drying processes. We recover this energy to reduce gas consumption, improve thermal stability and lower energy intensity per tonne.
Frozen food
Frozen Foods
Blanching, cooking and refrigeration systems produce strong heat recovery opportunities. We turn rejected heat into useful hot water, reducing gas consumption without affecting cold chain performance.
Beverages-1
Beverages (inc. Hot Fill)
Pasteurisation, CIP and bottle washing drive continuous hot water demand. We enhance thermal efficiency, expand hot water capacity, and support corporate sustainability targets across processing and packaging operations.
Animal Nutrition
Animal Nutrition
Pelleting, conditioning and drying create heavy steam demand and large recoverable heat losses. We help plants reduce fuel use, stabilize temperatures, and improve condensate performance in continuous production environments.
Bakeries (2)
Bakeries
Ovens, proofers and make-up air systems reject high volumes of recoverable heat. We reduce gas consumption, improve HVAC stability, and support environmental performance without impacting throughput.
Bottling
Bottling
Rinsing, sterilisation and hot fill processes require stable, high-volume thermal supply. We improve boiler performance, recover waste heat and stabilise hot water availability during peak demand.
Brewing
Brewing & Fermentation
Brewhouses depend on steam reliability, hot liquor generation and precise temperature control. We reduce stack losses, cut fuel intensity, and improve brewhouse energy performance.
Canning
Canning & Preservation
Retorts and sterilisation tunnels operate at high thermal intensity. We reduce steam loss, improve thermal-cycle efficiency and lower operating costs while maintaining validated process conditions.
Cereal
Cereal & Grains
Cookers, dryers and flakers exhaust large amounts of usable heat. We convert this energy into process-ready hot water, lower fuel use and reduce energy intensity per tonne processed.
Confectionery
Confectionery
Cooking, tempering and climate-critical air management require stable thermal conditions. We strengthen temperature control, reduce utility costs and cut emissions without compromising product quality.
Distilleries
Distilleries
Mashing, distillation and drying require reliable steam and generate high exhaust losses. In particular, the high latent heat exhausts of these processes provide an opportunity for MVR to close the thermal cycle around distillation and drying processes. We increase thermal efficiency, eliminate unnecessary steam loss and support long-term fuel reduction strategies.
Ingredients
Ingredients & Specialty Processing
Spray dryers, evaporators and reactors operate with strict thermal requirements. We capture waste heat, stabilise utilities and reduce carbon intensity across temperature-sensitive processes.
Ready meals
Prepared & Ready Meals
Kettles, ovens, cook-chill systems and CIP create continuous thermal load. We reduce boiler run hours, increase system efficiency and support a transition towards low-carbon hot water generation.
Tea
Tea & Coffee Processing
Roasting, extraction and drying generate strong low-grade heat streams. We capture this energy, reduce boiler demand and strengthen thermal infrastructure for future decarbonisation.
CASE STUDIES

Trusted by World Leading Food & Beverage Manufacturers

These case studies demonstrate how decarbonisation objectives are translated into practical, engineered solutions that deliver verified reductions in energy use, water consumption, and emissions across Food & Beverage manufacturing operations. Each example reflects a rigorous, site-specific approach designed around real operating constraints and long term reliability.

Technologies

Three Decades of Practical, Repeatable Solutions

Our technologies address the core thermal demands of Food and Beverage processing, from steam reliability and high-volume hot water to waste heat recovery and utility decarbonisation, delivering immediate site-level benefits while supporting broader corporate sustainability strategies.

FLU-ACE™

Direct Contact Condensing Heat Recovery

Food & Beverage facilities typically operate large steam and hot water loads, making boiler and process exhaust ideal for energy recovery. FLU-ACE captures clean or dirty streams of latent and sensible heat from boilers, dryers, ovens and roasters to generate clean low-grade hot water for processing, sanitation and CIP. This reduces fuel consumption, improves boiler efficiency and delivers substantial, verifiable CO₂ reductions.

FLU-ACE installed on site with Thermal Energy branding

HeatSponge™

2-Stage Condensing Economiser

Recover sensible and condensing heat from boiler flue gas to improve efficiency by up to 10%, even in high-duty cooking, pasteurisation and drying environments. Their indirect configuration is ideal where separation between flue gas and process or potable water is required, supporting sanitary compliance while reducing fuel input.

HeatSponge installed on boiler

Hybrid FLU-ACE™

Direct Fired Water Heater + Direct Contact Economiser

Integrates high-efficiency direct-fired water heating with advanced waste heat recovery, enabling plants to meet large, variable hot water demands without oversizing boiler capacity. Waste heat is utilised first, with only the balance supplied by the burner. This reduces gas use, stabilises hot water supply for washdown, sanitation and processing, and supports long-term decarbonisation objectives.

Hybrid FLU-ACE installed on site

PERCO-ACE

Direct Fired Water Heating

The most efficient method of producing high-volume hot water directly from natural gas, particularly for cold water make-up duties up to 85°C. It provides rapid, reliable hot water for washdown, sanitation, blanching, ingredient preparation and other high-demand processes, reducing reliance on steam distribution and enabling partial or full de-steaming strategies.

PERCO-ACE installed on site

GEM™

Full Venturi Steam Traps

Use a venturi orifice design with no moving parts, providing permanent steam trapping performance essential for cooking, pasteurisation, CIP and process heating. They eliminate live steam loss, stabilise condensate removal on kettles, heat exchangers and dryers, and significantly reduce maintenance and energy waste across hygiene-critical operations.

GEM Opal Traps lined up

Sustainability that pays for itself

Proven solutions that deliver verified returns from day one. 

Speak to our team

If you are looking to reduce fuel use, Scope 1 emissions, or operating cost across Food & Beverage steam and hot water systems, we can help you understand what is practically achievable.

Get in touch to discuss where energy is being lost at your site and which proven efficiency or heat recovery solutions offer the strongest payback without operational or hygiene risk.

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