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Beneo has unveiled plans to install new equipment at its rice ingredients plant in Wijgmaal, Belgium, to reduce CO2 emissions. The functional ingredient manufacturer will install a large-scale industrial heat pump, supplied by Heaten, to recover energy from wastewater, in turn reducing Beneo’s CO2 emissions. The rice ingredients produced at the Wijgmaal site are used by global manufacturers in a variety of applications, from making desserts creamier to refining the viscosity of soups. Making speciality rice ingredients requires very high temperatures as the process uses both wet extraction and a drying process. Currently, the drying process uses energy derived from natural gas. Investing in a new heat pump that recovers energy from wastewater that would have been usually lost is set to improve Beneo’s sustainable energy management. The new heat pump can transform the energy from the wastewater, increasing it to a level that is high enough to contribute to the drying process of rice starch or rice protein. Roland Vanhoegaerden, operations managing director of specialty rice ingredients at Beneo, said: “Installing the heat pump represents an important sustainability milestone for us at Beneo as it will help us to reduce CO2 emissions which is key to mitigating our overall impact on the planet.” He continued: “We’ve spent several months installing heat exchangers and additional piping at our Wijgmaal factory...the heat pump is our next but not our final step. It is the continuation of an integrated approach across our value chain that BENEO will undertake for the years to come.” The heat pump is expected to be operational in June this year. You might also like to read:

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