ARENA awards three companies $12 million for process heat projects

McCain Foods, Sugar Australia and Blackmores will receive approximately $12 million in combined support, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), for projects trialling and demonstrating low-emission technologies for process heat.

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According to a statement from the federal government agency on Tuesday, the projects will demonstrate how to reduce reliance on natural gas, as well as how companies can utilise technology, derisk future investment and decarbonise key processes. 

McCain Foods is receiving $7.38 million in funding through ARENA’s Industrial Transformation Stream (ITS.) Sugar Australia and Blackmores have been awarded $4.1 million and $723,900 respectively, both through the National Industrial Transformation (NIT) Program.

For the funded projects:

• Sugar Australia aims to significantly reduce emissions at its Yarraville refinery by replacing traditional natural gas evaporators with an electrically driven mechanical vapor recompression system;
• McCain Foods will implement two interconnected heat recovery systems at its Ballarat potato processing site; and
• Blackmores will replace a natural gas boiler with a high-efficiency heat pump and a hot water buffer tank at its Braeside, Victoria site.   

“By assisting in the adoption of clean technologies in heat processes in Australia’s food, beverage and pharmaceutical sectors, these projects will provide a blueprint for similar businesses to replicate and scale up these solutions nationwide,” said ARENA CEO Darren Miller.

Picture: credit Sugar Australia/Linkedin