GEA builds world's first carbon-neutral juice production facility for innocent

- GEA manufacturing and refrigeration technology significantly reduces future energy consumption and carbon footprint at innocent's new juice production facility

- New carbon-neutral factory in the Netherlands to produce up to 300 million liters of chilled juice drinks and smoothies each year

- Smart GEA heat pump design wins gold at Heat Pump Awards 2021

Düsseldorf (Germany), November 1, 2021 - GEA Group AG, as key project partner, has provided innocent, Europe's leading smoothie and juice brand, with the process technology for the world's first carbon-neutral juice factory. The new factory in the Netherlands will lead the way for future plants in the food industry with a truly sustainable approach. Located at the Rotterdam Food Hub, the production facility is scheduled to open officially in spring 2022.

In the new-build project, GEA is responsible for the process, refrigeration and heating technology. Early involvement in the design planning phase enabled the company to develop numerous innovative process changes that significantly help innocent on the path to reaching its climate goals.

"The innocent project is an outstanding example of how we put our purpose of 'engineering for a better world' into practice," said GEA CEO Stefan Klebert. "Not only have we integrated the most resource-efficient technologies, we have also entirely rethought the processes as well as the heating and refrigeration systems. Together with innocent, we have pushed the envelope beyond standard beverage production practice."

Energy supply and demand cycle
Since much of the energy used in production is for heat, GEA worked intensively on in-process energy and resource efficiency. The company also applied the sustainable energy solutions (SEnS) approach. This factors heating and cooling requirements into the systems right at the planning stage, instead of after the fact when corrections are virtually no longer possible. For instance, a GEA heat pump will recover waste heat from the refrigeration systems and reuse it in other process steps. GEA and innocent recently won gold in the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) People's Choice Award for this smart heat pump design.

Showcase for the entire beverage industry
Taking a 360-degree view of the process chain will allow innocent to substantially cut its carbon footprint while massively influencing other parameters such as water consumption and waste generation.

"I take my hat off to GEA because they have been at our side every step of the way, helping us challenge conventional design approaches. All the little details add up to a great success," said Andy Joynson, Chief Blender (Site Director) at the new innocent plant. The new solutions implemented go far beyond conventional beverage production processes. "Food and beverage manufacturers can choose to base their future plant designs on our model. We want to inspire and support a broad-based transformation. In line with that, we are consciously inviting the industry to share in our findings-and at the same time to learn from our missteps and our successes."

Media Relations
Anne Putz
Peter-Müller-Str. 12, 40468 Düsseldorf, Germany
Phone +49 211 9136-1500
[email protected]

About GEA
GEA is one of the world's largest systems suppliers to the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. The internationally active industrial technology group focuses on machines and plants as well as sophisticated process technology, components and comprehensive services. With more than 18,000 employees, the Group generated sales of more than EUR 4.6 billion in fiscal year 2020. A key focus is on making customers' production processes ever more sustainable and efficient. GEA's plants, processes and components help to significantly reduce CO₂ emissions, the use of plastics and food waste in production worldwide. In line with its corporate mission statement "Engineering for a better world", GEA is thus making a decisive contribution to a sustainable future.

GEA is listed in the German MDAX and the STOXX^(R) Europe 600 Index and is also among the companies comprising the DAX 50 ESG and MSCI Global Sustainability Indices.

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