2024-08-01 06:30:39
The food industry must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. A specialist study shows the potential for action on processing methods through greater energy efficiency, electrification and renewable sources.
Food in France represents a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. The agri-food industry, the leading French economic player with more than 15,000 companies and more than 430,000 jobs, plays an important role in achieving decarbonization in this sector. The latter, like theAdeme said, must evolve towards a more sustainable and responsible food model. Not only must we feed populations, but we must do so by producing healthy food, preserving the environment, reducing food waste, and improving waste management.
The decarbonization of the agri-food industry (AFI) inexorably involves changes in energy consumption. A recent study d’Allice, an alliance for the decarbonization of industry, analyzes the potential of certain processes in more detail.
Focus on thermal energies
The study was conducted with the Technical Center for the Conservation of Agricultural Products (CTCPA), the Center for Economic Studies and Research on Energy (Ceren) and RMT Ecofluides. “Carried out in one year, our study provides technical support to companies in the food industry sector that must create decarbonization roadmaps, in compliance with the Climate and Resilience Act of August 22, 2021” says Lucille Payet, scientific director of Allice.
An inventory first showed that the food industry sector represents 13% of the energy consumption of industry in France. It emits 80% of its greenhouse gases indirectly (scope 3), due to agricultural production and raw materials. The study looked at the remaining 20% of emissions, which are direct emissions linked to processing activities (scope 1) and indirect emissions due to the energy used in the processes (scope 2).
“With some sub-sectors such as sugar and starch having already worked on their decarbonisation roadmaps, we have focused on the dairy industry and other food industry sectors” explains Ilyas Gain-Nachi, Allice’s project coordinator engineer. In these two sub-sectors, called NCE 12 and NCE 14 respectively in the nomenclature, final energy consumption is electricity for 35% and 45%. Thermal energy includes a small share of renewable energies (4%), a little purchased steam (6% to 8%), and above all fossil fuels, mainly gas (38% to 50%).
As French electricity is largely decarbonized, the study focused on examining thermal energy consumption, particularly heat. “Looking more closely, we realize that the majority of thermal energy consumption in these two sub-sectors comes from transformation processes, mainly drying, cooking and heating of liquids” adds Ilyas Gain-Nachi. Allice experts and their partners therefore focused on case studies of these processes presenting a strong decarbonization challenge.
Three levers of decarbonization
Examples of sterilization/pasteurization (different types of heat treatments and packaging on a yogurt production line and in an industrial vegetable cannery), cooking ovens in industrial bakeries, and fruit drying using solar thermal energy were analyzed. The cleaning of tanks containing food products was also covered, as it is a large consumer of water and energy.
Three decarbonization levers have been quantified. First of all, energy efficiency gains through the launch or continuation of actions on processes (optimization of consumption management, advanced regulation, heat recovery, network insulation, etc.). By applying more or less the best available technologies, 3% to 7% of electricity consumption could be saved (i.e. 30 to 80 GWh nationally) and 6% to 17% of fuel consumption (i.e. 360 to 1,130 GWh). Energy efficiency could thus avoid the emission of 490 to 990 ktCO2/year from food industry processes (excluding sugar and starch). Even if the potential seems low, these actions constitute a first step towards decarbonization.
Electrification is then a relevant solution when it comes to replacing technologies using fossil fuels. This mainly involves using heat pumps, whose temperature levels (90-100°C) are adapted to agri-food processes, as well as mechanical vapor recompression systems. By deploying such technologies, a little more than 2 MtCO2/year could be avoided.
Finally, the use of thermal renewable energies offers real possibilities for decarbonization. The Allice study considered solid biomass, methanization, solar thermal, very low energy geothermal energy and green hydrogen. While the latter option is still very dependent on the evolution of the H2 sector, the other technical solutions are more mature. Methanization, in particular, has the greatest potential, because many food industry sectors have organic waste to be recovered as biogas. Solar thermal is also suitable for the production of hot water or steam. These two technologies alone would make it possible to avoid releasing 1.5 MtCO2/year. For the other solutions, additional work is necessary (industrial R&D and demonstrators).
“The processes studied are present almost everywhere in the agri-food industry. While some large groups have already launched decarbonization actions, smaller companies are still seriously wondering how to act. Our study, via players such as the CTCPA, will provide them with technical avenues to develop,” concludes Lucille Payet.
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