ENERGY EFFICIENCY From silos to systems


Rethinking how industries heat and cool their operations is becoming essential as companies look to cut energy use, lower emissions, and improve effi ciency. In this article, Jose La Loggia, Group President EMEA at Trane Technologies, explains why smarter thermal management is key to making industrial processes cleaner, more reliable, and more competitive.


M Jose La Loggia


'Moving from separate to integrated systems


doesn’t mean reinventing the plant. It means rethinking how energy fl ows through it.'


ost industrial facilities still treat cooling and heating as siloed, disconnected systems. This outdated mindset results in wasted energy, higher greenhouse gas emissions, and unnecessary costs. By shifting to a unifi ed thermal management approach, where heat and cold are part of the same thermal energy ecosystem, industries can unlock major gains in effi ciency, sustainability and performance.


Heating and cooling processes account for a major


share of global energy consumption and industrial emissions. According to the European Environment Agency, the industrial sector’s heating and cooling contribute around 20-25% of Europe’s CO2


emissions. For decades, these systems have


operated in silos, often installed and managed independently. As a result, valuable energy – whether rejected heat from the cooling process’s condensation or waste heat from the heating process – is frequently lost. But this doesn’t have to be the case.


The opportunity Rethinking how thermal energy is produced, recovered and reused off ers a clear path toward decarbonised operations, enhanced effi ciency, optimised energy use and lower operational costs across the industries. Integrated thermal management systems challenge the traditional mindset, enabling industrial plants to recover, repurpose, and balance thermal energy across their processes. This system-level thinking is key to reducing emissions, cutting costs, and moving towards truly decarbonised operations. The fi rst law of thermodynamics states that ‘energy cannot


be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another.’ This fundamental law highlights the opportunity: when we think ‘thermally’, we see how energy rejected in one place, i.e. by the chiller, can become useful heat elsewhere in the processes. In food and beverage manufacturing, cooling and heating


are vital for ensuring food safety, maintaining product quality, and extending shelf life. Proper temperature control prevents the growth of harmful bacteria and pathogens, ensuring products are safe for consumption. Precise heating and cooling also preserve the desired texture, fl avour, and nutritional value of food and beverages, contributing to consistent product quality. In other sectors, cooling and heating enable process stability, material integrity, or safe storage. These needs can be


14 February 2026 • www.acr-news.com


met far more effi ciently when approached holistically, with an all-electric thermal management system.


Converting siloed heating and cooling plants into thermal systems According to a McKinsey report, the industry consumes more energy than any other sector globally: 149 million terajoules in 2017. Fuel consumption, including the generation of heat for industrial processes, accounts for almost 45% of that total. Data from the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) shows that out of the 2,388 TWh of fi nal energy industry uses for heating and cooling purposes, most of it is for process heating. Traditionally, heating has come from boilers burning fossil fuels, while cooling relied on electric chillers. These systems are designed and operated separately, ignoring the thermodynamic link between them. Consider the following: ■ Industrial processes often require simultaneous heating and cooling


■ Chillers generate heat as a by-product of the cooling process, which is often rejected into the atmosphere or the surrounding environment


■ There are often additional sources of waste energy that can be repurposed by heat pump technology: excess heat/ cooling of compressed air, decentralised refrigeration systems, and ventilation systems.


This design, where chiller and boiler plants work alongside each other as standalone, separate systems, is no longer justifi able. Existing technology, like heat pumps, makes it possible to repurpose that waste heat for low and medium temperature requirements – without additional fossil-fuel consumption.


Turning waste heat into a resource Waste heat is not a nuisance to be eliminated; it’s an energy source waiting to be tapped. There is an abundance of free energy all around us, and thermal management systems enable us to capitalise on this, opening the door to completely eliminating the need for fossil fuels for heating. Thermal management systems allow industries to rethink their relationship with heat, transforming what was once discarded into a valuable input.


Heat pumps, although the concept itself is over a century old, have evolved through continuous advances in thermodynamic design, low-global warming potential (GWP)


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