Episode 2
The second target of todays #Heatpumps tour to the COP was the production site of Geelen Counterflow in Haelen, NL. I have met Sander Geelen, the CEO many years ago and he has always made the impression on me that he is a person that puts action to words.
The factory reflects that impression already from the outside. Its southerly facade consists entirely of PV panels. The administration building is potentially the most sustainable building you can think of, with a BREEAM Score of >99%. And all roofs are covered with Photovoltaic panels.
As Sander could not make it on shortest possible note, Koen van Kessel gave me a tour.
Geelen counterflow originally introduced the counterflow heat exchanger for cooling in pet food and food production processes. After many years of successful operating, todays CEO, Sander Geelen,wanted to move the product range to a more environmentally friendly level and started to experiment with electric dryers. It was just one step further to integrate an electric compression heat pump in the process, hence making it circular and reducing losses to a minimum.
And again: to put action to words, Geelen Counterflow introduced an air-drying process in its own drying chamber showing that its possible. What next? Well, a production hall needs to be heated and increasingly often also cooled to keep the temperature for the employees at a comfortable level. This was done by the installation of two big heat pumps with capacity in the 100s of kW.
It was an impressive visit that showed once more, that the technology is ready to be deployed and it requires decision makers to take the plunge in favor of using renewable energy in the most efficient manner: integrated heat pump technologies.
Thank you Sander for the invitation, thank you Koen for the tour.
