Well, Geelen Counterflow has modified it to, “Don’t do what I say, do what I do”, specifically for when it comes to developing an environmentally friendly philosophy in the manufacture of equipment used in feed and food production systems. Shown today, this company is actively identifying ways to eliminate fossil fuels from the feed and food manufacturing process, starting at home.
Since 1980, Geelen Counterflow has devoted itself exclusively to the design, construction and installation of its unique counterflow dryers and coolers in feed and food factories around the world. This family run company in Haelen, The Netherlands, invented the counterflow cooler, which is now acknowledged as a worldwide market standard with units successfully operating in feed and food plants in more than 100 countries. The counterflow dryer is becoming similarly successful thanks to its high food saftey standards, best energy efficiency and lowest total cost of ownership.
The company’s goal is to build the world’s best dryers and coolers for feed and food to be 100 percent sustainable. It’s a strategy initiated and overseen by the second-generation owner and Managing Director, Sander Geelen.
We are sitting in your office here in Haelen, The Netherlands, which has been certified by BREEAM for its sustainability with a 99.95 percent score, the highest in the world. It generates 50 percent more energy than required to operate as well as putting that surplus back into your factory and into a local energy co-operative. Can you expect others in the food processing industry to emulate your approach?
For any organisation building a new office it makes sense to have ambitious long-term goals for sustainability because ultra-sustainable buildings are also more comfortable and healthy and have the lowest ‘Total Cost of Ownership’ over their lifetime. But for that you have to look beyond the traditional short-term way of calculating payback times.
The building is constructed of 36cm thick, massive wooden floors and walls. Why this over steel, concrete or brick?
Building in massive wood only has advantages. Massive wood provides a pretty unique combination of thermal mass, insulation value, structural strength and fire resistance.
The fire service has provided this building with the highest fire ranking you can get, because massive wood, unlike timber frame does not burn easily. Wood is an excellent insulator so you can have heat on one side and nothing will happen on the other side, as opposed to concrete or bricks which will immediately radiate heat through. But collapsing buildings is what fire fighters are the most worried about. If there is a local fire somewhere in a building they start worrying that the steel will collapse, even concrete can collapse. A fire chars the outside of the wood, and as soon as it’s black, oxygen can no longer get in – the char forms a protective skin.
As an individual primarily concerned about the environment and our industry’s impact upon it, what are your views on food waste?
Food suffers from the same systemic problems as other natural resources and raw materials. Producers, nor consumers, pay fully for the value these resources and raw materials provide. Transport based on fossil fuels is so cheap that products get shipped around without sufficient regard for the pollution of atmosphere and oceans. As a result here in Europe we can buy food products from around the world at incredibly low prices. Anything that is too cheap is thrown away easily.
In my factory I use the example of stainless steel. A significant percentage of the stainless steel we buy from steel plants ends up as waste in our process. However, it is very valuable so we sell it to be recycled in the steel plant. That has been the case forever so it has nothing to do with our more recent sustainability goals. Nobody throws away stainless steel. It’s too expensive. So it has formed the perfect recycling system without much regulation.
This is where we should look for solutions in reducing waste in general and food waste in particular. Any system that translates the full value of our natural resources into the price we pay and that compensates for damage to the environment will automatically reduce food waste. This does not necessarily have negative effects on the economy or food security. For example, a “carbon fee and dividend” system as promoted in the US by the Citizens Climate Lobby pushes all the tipping points in the right direction without negative effects on the economy or the purchasing power of consumers.
Looking at the global market for your products, where are the major markets developing for you?
Aquafeed in Africa is moving fast, we see indications everywhere. I’m surprised by the size of some projects there. Aquafeed is also booming in Asia and Central America and we still see lots of activity in food and petfood, though mostly outside of Western Europe.
This year we are building dryers for France, USA, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Ecuador, Columbia, Argentina, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan. That is on top of well over 300 coolers, most of them sold to big international manufacturers of pellet mills, expanders and extruders who include our equipment in their supply.
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