THOMASVILLE, GA. — After seeing what a heat recovery system could do in its Bardstown, Ky., bakery, Flowers Foods implemented this technology in its new line in Oxford, Pa. The system from Air Management Technologies, Inc., Lewisburg, Pa., recovers waste BTUs from the oven exhaust and uses them to heat the glycol that warms the bread line’s proof box, cooler and tray washer.

“It worked so well, we made the decision to use waste heat off the oxidizer to help heat these key areas on the production line rather than purchase a boiler,” said Jerry Hancock, vice-president of environmental affairs and security. This system enables the bakery to capture 750,000 to 1 million BTUs per hour.

“We want our bakeries to operate as efficiently as possible, so we are continually looking for ways to reduce energy consumption,” he said. “This heat recovery system allows us to take heat energy that was just going out the exhaust stack and to use it to operate the bakery equipment. This permanently eliminates the need to purchase additional energy to operate this equipment.”

Flowers Foods plans to incorporate the technology on its new production lines going forward, Mr. Hancock said.

While recovering wasted heat is a major strategy for saving energy at Flowers Foods, it isn’t the only one. The company also installed nine large ceiling fans to circulate air in the bakery to optimize ventilation. This has brought down air changes per hour from 12 to 8, reducing ventilation energy costs by almost a third.