GEA to supply Heineken with £25m heat pump solution

UK: GEA is to supply Heineken UK’s brewery in Manchester with a heat pump network as part of Heineken’s £25m investment in a network to capture and reuse thermal energy.

The contract supports of Heineken’s global ambition to reach net zero across its production sites (scopes 1 and 2) by 2030. The Manchester brewery in Hulme produces about 400 million litres of Heineken, Birra Moretti and Foster’s beer per year.

The contract will see the installation of heat pumps and a heat pump network capturing and reusing heat to brew and package beer. GEA will design, supply and install the low carbon heat network to the existing plant and will also modify the legacy process equipment. 

Currently, steam is produced in large steam boilers powered by natural gas. With the new system, Heineken UK will use a low temperature (90ºC) hot water network driven by GEA’s ammonia heat pumps. The heat will be redistributed and reused to power other brewing stages, such as mashing, pasteurisation and washing returnable kegs.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. Once completed, Heineken UK estimates that the installation will result in a 45% decrease in gas use.