Energy Use & Benchmarks6 / 11
Compressed Air, Vacuum & Packaging Lines
The electrical loads around the process: pneumatics, vacuum packing, conveyors and the packaging hall's quiet consumption.
9 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead · Last reviewed July 2026
Around the cook lines and the cold plant runs a third tier of consumption: the utilities and the packaging hall. None of these loads dominates the way refrigeration does, but together they commonly account for a fifth of a food factory's electricity, and they share a useful property: they are the loads most likely to be running for no reason. This lesson tours compressed air, vacuum, ventilation and the packaging lines, with the food-specific twists on material you already have from Level 2.
In this lesson
- 01Compressed air, food-grade
- 02Vacuum and packaging machinery
- 03Ventilation and the factory environment
- 04Where this module lands
- 05Sources and further reading