Federal Environment Ministry supports project with 80,000 euros
The Klaus Fahlenbock bakery in Wippenfürth (North Rhine-Westphalia) receives 80,000 euros from the Environmental Innovation Programme of the Federal Environment Ministry. The support is granted for an innovative concept for dough fermentation and cooling. The project aims at reducing the amount of dough being discarded and hence saving raw materials and energy.
The entire pre-baking process ranging from the fully automatic fermentation unit to the cooling, freezing and storage facilities will be linked by an intelligent control unit. This reduces the amount of preformed dough mounds and bakery products which normally have to be discarded from seven to two per cent since less flour and baking mixtures are required. Total energy consumption will drop by 50 per cent to 90,000 kWh per year, corresponding to an annual avoidance of approximately 45,500 kg CO2 emissions.
The baking goods are evenly moisturised in an energy efficient and fully automatic fermentation unit by means of a micro-tech moisturising technology based on ultrasound which produces a fine mist. This improves the quality of the products and significantly reduces the amount of discards. Cooling and storage of the products can be perfectly geared to the requirements of specific products in a new cooling unit. Waste heat from the cooling compressors is, moreover, recovered by a heat exchanger and used for heating or the generation of warm water.
The process used by the Klaus Fahlenbock bakery can be transferred to a number of other bakeries. The technology can also be used by enterprises of other trade sectors requiring combined heat and cooling processes. The Environmental Innovation Programme supports the first large-scale use of innovative technologies. To be eligible the project must surpass the best available technology and should be suited to serve as a demonstration project.