Little energy – lots of ice cream
04 November 2019
On hot summer days, ice cream refreshes us and provides us with renewed energy. A lot of energy is also required to create ice cream from ingredients such as milk, sugar or chocolate. The ice-cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s uses digital solutions to sustainably monitor and reduce consumption.
Summertime is ice-cream time. Germans consumed an average of 8.7 litres per capita in the summer of 2018. In order to produce the cool refreshment, Ben & Jerry’s uses compressed air in many systems at its plant in Hellendoorn in the Netherlands. The grippers, which de-stack the ice-cream cups, the agitators, which whisk the ingredients, and the packaging machines all operate pneumatically. Compressed air generation costs energy – the consumption of which, the ice-cream manufacturer wants to keep as low as possible.
To date, Ben & Jerry’s has used full operating pressure in all systems to ensure that the desired result is achieved. The line for de-stacking the cups, for example, was rated at 6.4 bar full system pressure. One bar less may have been sufficient – but the plant operators had no way of checking it. This is different now.
Read the full article in the November issue of DPA
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