Lamb Weston Meijer and its neighbour save energy in a unique project

Potato Processor Lamb Weston / Meijer and Wiskerke Onions are working hard on the construction of a residual heat connection between the two adjacent companies.

They are installing heat exchangers, pipe systems and a system for measuring and monitoring energy consumption. This system channels the excess heat from Lamb Weston / Meijer to Wiskerke Onions. This saves the two neighbours the annual energy consumption of 300 households.

Erik de Been, speaking for Lamb Weston / Meijer:

“We're well on schedule to commission the new installation at the end of June 2018.”

Chayenne Wiskerke, director of Wiskerke Onions:

“That's the start of the period when we dry our onion harvest.”

“That way, we can immediately validate the environmental benefits we achieve with this new installation.”

Green Deal

The residual heat project of the two agricultural companies fits in with the social policy of the Province of Zeeland aimed at promoting the energy transition (reducing the use of fossil fuels).

The Province of Zeeland has therefore concluded a Green Deal with the central government, from which the Province of Zeeland has provided a subsidy of almost €800,000 for this project.

The project is being facilitated by the Smart Delta Resources platform, an alliance of eleven energy and raw materials-intensive companies in the Southwest Delta region, including Lamb Weston / Meijer.

Heat exchange

After processes such as peeling potatoes with steam peelers and pre-baking potato products, Lamb Weston / Meijer is left with energy that is of too low a quality for other parts of the production process. But the next-door company Wiskerke Onions can make good use of this energy to dry the onion harvest.

For that purpose, Lamb Weston / Meijer collects this energy via heat exchangers. These heat up water, which then flows to Wiskerke Onions. Once the heat has been released, the cooled water flows back to these heat exchangers, to be reheated in the production process of Lamb Weston / Meijer.

Savings potential

Once the new installation is put into operation in June 2018, the partners will be able to measure exactly how much energy they are saving. The projected savings potential is approximately 500,000 m3 of natural gas and a reduction in emissions of approximately 875 tonnes of CO2. This saves roughly the annual energy consumption of 300 households.

Wiskerke Onions is paying the lion's share of the €1.6 million investment. Wiskerke Onions is also receiving almost €800,000 and Lamb Weston / Meijer about €13,000 in subsidies from the Province of Zeeland.

Made possible by subsidy

Member of the Province of Zeeland's Provincial Executive Ben de Reu describes the partnership between the two international agro-food companies as being unique in the world.

Ben de Reu:

“This subsidy from the Green Deal will make this project cost effective.”

“Without a subsidy, the payback period would be too long and this residual heat system would not be financially viable.”

“In that case the residual heat connection - and all the associated energy savings - would not be achieved. Facilitating project development through the Smart Delta Resources (SDR) platform has been contributed significantly to this.”