2 Sisters to cut energy use at Carlisle site

2 Sisters Food Group has installed two new vacuum pumps, designed to cut energy use, at its Cavaghan & Gray ready meal manufacturing facility in Carlisle.

The Busch Dolphin LX liquid ring vacuum pumps are said to speed-up the cooking time and enables food to be cooked at a lower temperature, leading to significant reductions in energy use.  

Matt Soden, category buyer for engineering at 2 Sisters, said: “To create a quality product we need quality equipment that can cope with a high moisture production environment, while also keeping our energy usage and costs to a minimum.”

‘Energy use reduction requirements’

“Installing the Busch Dolphins means we are able to deliver first-class savoury products that are cooked to the best possible standard while also meeting our energy use reduction requirements,” Soden added.

2 Sisters produces a number of savoury products used in ready meals – such as ratatouille, white wine sauce and fillings – at the Carlisle site.  

Liquid ring vacuum pumps are designed to operate in production processes involving large amounts of water and steam. The performance of the pump is unaffected and any moisture is absorbed and discharged, Busch said.

‘Savings’

Mark Sumnall, UK sales director for Busch, said: “Our Dolphin liquid ring vacuum pumps are particularly appropriate for cooking applications such as this. They can easily cope with the steam and water generated from the process while at the same time delivering excellent performance and energy savings for our customer.”

Dolphin’s liquid ring technology works with just one moving part, the impeller shaft assembly, which is mounted next to the casing.  The liquid ring is formed by the service liquid, which is normally water, rotating concentrically.

Process gas enters via a suction port and travels between the impeller blades and is compressed, before being ejected through the discharge port with a quantity of service liquid.

The other benefits of the product are robust construction, minimum heat emission and low maintenance requirements, claimed Bosch.

Meanwhile, don’t miss our review of 2 Sisters’ action-packed year.