Heat pump system for pasteurisers
2nd December 2025
SWITZERLAND: Tetra Pak has developed an integrated heat pump system for pasteurisers, designed to help food and beverage producers reduce energy use and cut costs.
Pasteurisation is a critical process for food safety and quality, but traditional systems are energy-intensive, typically relying on fossil fuels for heating and electrical chillers for cooling.
The new Tetra Pak system builds on the company’s existing pasteurisation technology by introducing a high-efficiency electric heat pump that recovers and reuses heat from the pasteurisation process. It claims to be up to three times more efficient than a traditional boiler.
By combining heating and cooling in one integrated solution, the system also optimises energy use across the pasteurisation process. It upgrades low-temperature waste heat to higher temperatures and generates ice water for cooling.
According to Tetra Pak, food and beverage producers operating large scale pasteurisation processes, such as fruit juice, chilled milk, cheese and ambient milk pre-treatment pasteurisation, stand to achieve substantial savings.
The company maintains that a typical dairy production line producing 60,000 litres of milk/hour and operating 6,000hrs/year, could see a reduction in energy consumption for pasteurization of up to 77%, making operating expense savings of up to €230,000/year and reducing CO2 emissions by up to 650 tonnes/year.
