Heat Recovery in a Food Factory
The refrigeration plant rejects heat all day while gas heats washdown water every night: connecting the two, and the other recovery pairings worth checking.
11 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead · Last reviewed July 2026
A food factory is one of the few places in industry where a large heat rejection and a large heat demand run side by side, all year round. The refrigeration plant throws heat to the roof every hour the cold chain operates; the washdown and CIP systems buy heat from the gas main every production night. They are often twenty metres apart and have usually never been introduced. This lesson works the sector's most reliable heat-recovery pairing end to end, then tours the other matches worth checking, using the pinch-style discipline of matching heat by temperature rather than by habit.