Arla Foods Ingredients Invests €8.3 Million to Reduce Emissions at Danmark Protein Plant

The new system is expected to reduce CO₂ emissions by approximately 2,500 tonnes annually. According to the company’s calculations, this is equivalent to the annual heating consumption of 919 households using natural gas.

At the Danmark Protein plant, whey is processed into protein products and ingredients for the food industry. Production Tower 4 previously used a gas-fired heating system. Following the upgrade, the facility can switch between the plant’s steam system and a new electric heater.

This arrangement is expected to reduce natural gas consumption and enable the production process to operate partly on renewable electricity. According to Arla Foods Ingredients, Tower 4 will be able to run entirely on renewable electricity for 23% of its operating time.

“This is one of those investments where we simultaneously improve operational reliability, strengthen security of supply and reduce our climate impact. The fact that we can achieve such a large reduction through a single solution highlights the potential of electrifying our production,” said Mogens Bøgh Pedersen, Director of the Danmark Protein plant.

The hybrid system allows the plant to select its energy source according to conditions in the Danish electricity market. The company will be able to increase electricity consumption when high levels of wind and solar power generation drive prices down and reduce consumption when electricity prices rise.

The project forms part of Arla’s strategy to electrify production. In addition to reducing emissions, the new system is expected to increase the flexibility of energy consumption and improve the plant’s operational reliability.

Arla Foods Ingredients is also planning a similar upgrade for Production Tower 5. Its gas-fired heating equipment is expected to be replaced with a combined steam and electric heating system.

Once both projects have been completed, the plant could reduce its total CO₂ emissions by up to 5,200 tonnes annually. This is equivalent to the annual heating consumption of approximately 1,911 households using natural gas.

“In addition to delivering substantial CO₂e savings, this investment also represents a very strong business case. It is therefore a solution that we will naturally seek to scale across our other sites,” said Paul van Rooij, Vice President, Supply Chain, at Arla Foods Ingredients.

Arla Foods Ingredients specialises in producing dairy and whey ingredients for early life nutrition, medical nutrition, sports nutrition, health foods, beverages and other food categories. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Danish dairy group Arla Foods.