Baking&Snack - March 2017 - 114

ENERGY SOLUTIONS

dims them way back," explained Dennis Colliton, vicepresident of engineering, Northeast Foods.
In one of its bakeries, Flowers Foods combined
LEDs with built-in occupancy sensors and individually
adjustable light levels and saw energy savings of almost
70%, according to Ms. Marsh. With a well-rounded
lighting strategy that takes into account natural light,
plant traffic and smart purchases, bakers can take advantage of savings on that electric bill.

Blowing hot air
Less obvious but just as pervasive - and essential -
throughout the bakery involves the use of compressed
air. It's often overlooked but can be a major contributor
to energy waste. "Compressed air usage is undoubtedly
the biggest misused energy consumer in any bakery,"
Mr. Colliton said. "That's where the biggest bang can
be found."
Compressed air is used widely throughout a bakery,
such as for opening bags before they are filled with
product. Air compressors can get product out of pans
and can even be used in the makeup area to remove excess flour from the product. These leave room for wasted energy but opportunities for savings. "Literally almost every plant has compressed air systems, and there
is a lot of waste that people don't think about in those
areas," Mr. Marcucci said. "People run more psi than
they really need to, and a lot of people don't realize how

many leaks in their air system can really cause them to
use quite a bit of horsepower to keep the compressed
air system charged."
CLIF Bar's Twin Falls plant uses variable-speed air
compressors, which help manage lulls in production
without wasting energy.
Leaks can be the main culprit when it comes to energy waste. Compressed air leaks can waste up to 20 or
30% of a compressor's output, Ms. Marsh explained. The
good news, however, is that they are relatively easy and
inexpensive to repair. Flowers Foods' first initiative of
its Smart Saves program reduced compressed air leaks.
"Our engineering team performed compressed air surveys at bakeries to identify leaks wasting energy," she
said. This continues annually, with the company conducting air-leak audits to confirm that each bakery has a
monitor-and-repair program. These savings made such
an impact in one plant that the local utility company
took notice.
"Recently, one of our bakeries had a win-win result
when it saw significant savings from efficiency improvements to an air compressor system and leak repair,"
In October, the American Bakers Association and US Environmental Protection
Agency recognized the 18 most energy-efficient bread and roll bakeries in the
US. Those bakeries included several facilities of Bimbo Bakeries USA, Flowers
Foods, Klosterman Bakery, Bama Frozen Dough, Bama Pies and Automatic Rolls
of Baltimore, a bakery of Northeast Foods.
Randall Photography, LLC

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