The Limerick manufacturing site incorporated energy efficiency design with support from SEAI.

  • 11.38 GWh

    energy saved

  • €270,000

    annual cost savings

  • 2,028 tonnes

    of CO2 saved

Background

Nestle's Wyeth Nutrition Ireland is one of the largest manufacturers of infant nutrition powder in Ireland. The County Limerick factory was built in 1973 and employs 500 people.

In 2013, Wyeth Nutrition became a division of Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage company. In line with Nestlé’s global corporate sustainability targets and Nestlé's Net Zero Roadmap which lays out every step and tool needed for us to reach global net zero emissions across our entire business, our Limerick site is committed to improving its energy performance and reducing the impact of its activities on the environment. A member of An Bord Bia's Origin Green since 2014, sustainability is embedded at every step of production on site.

Wyeth’s site achieved ISO50001 certification in 2016. The organisation saw the next logical step as Certification to SEAI’s Excellence in Energy Efficient Design (EXEED) standard. The energy efficient design (EED) methodology aligns with the requirements of Wyeth’s ISO50001 system, corporate engineering standards and engineering best practice.

The Project

The Wyeth team worked with energy efficiency design experts. They carried out an Energy Balance Study at the outset of the project to identify the significant energy uses across the site. The Challenge & Analyse findings identified many opportunities which had not been identified on previous energy audits, and provided the basis on which to improve the design from a sustainability perspective.

Between 2018 and 2020, Wyeth completed two EXEED certified projects as part of a multi-year, multi-phase EXEED upgrade to the site. 

Phase 1: Compressed air upgrade: This project involved replacing existing air compressors with new, more efficient air compressors complete with heat recovery system, which preheats the boiler make-up water.

Phase 2: Combined heat and power (CHP) economiser upgrade: This project involved replacing the existing CHP economiser with a larger economiser thereby increasing the amount of heat recovered from the CHP flue gases.

The Energy Efficiency Design (EED) process provides a good structure to identify all potential opportunities for improvement and encourages thinking outside the box. The process identified several opportunities for Wyeth, which were not identified through previous standard energy audits.
Ian Ryan, Energy and Utilities Manager, Wyeth Nutrition Ireland

EED Expert

Wyeth appointed James Conroy from Capstone Energy as the Energy Efficient Design (EED) Expert for this project.

Results

For Phase 1, the total primary energy savings were 5.2 GWh (combined thermal and electrical energy savings). Annual CO2 emissions were reduced by 766 tonnes. The payback period without the grant lasted 4.7 years and with grant aid this timeframe was reduced to 3.1 years.

In Phase 2, the project saved 6.2 GWh of thermal energy with 1,262 tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided. Payback with the grant went from 3.4 to 2.1 years.

Combined Phase 1 and Phase 2 annual cost savings were €270,000.

What's next?

The next anticipated phase is to undertake an EED review of the process starting with the spray dryers.

Find out more about EXEED (opens in a new tab)