Waste heat recovery and thermal energy sharing towards a Circular Economy

Project Lead: Zhenjun Ma, University of Wollongong

Project Partners: GXA, Bega Group

Circular economy is a promising direction in societal organisation that offers significant potential for reduced emission intensity and enhanced sustainability and resilience, while accelerating economic growth and increasing energy productivity. Waste heat recovery is being recognised one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to increase energy efficiency and sustainability, and provide an attractive opportunity for an emission-free and less costly energy resource. The dairy industry is a very energy-intensive sector and nearly all milk products require substantial energy for heating and cooling. Heat recovery can be implemented in various production processes and the recovered heat can be reused in other production processes to reduce operational costs. This project aims to showcase a circular approach to waste heat management in the dairy industry. The knowledge and project outcomes will be an evidence-based and action-focused framework to effectively use energy resources in the production of dairy products.

Project Timeline: May 2024 – October 2025