Published: July 15, 2025
Baxters Futureproofs Vinegar Production with New Cooling System from ICS Cool Energy
ICS Cool Energy has supported Baxters Food Group’s Manor Vinegar production facility in Burntwood, Staffordshire, in modernising its cooling infrastructure to improve water management and creating capacity for future growth.
The Burntwood site produces malt and spirit vinegar under the Manor Vinegar name for a wide range of customers, supplying product in bulk tankers, intermediate bulk containers (IBC) and bottled formats. Vinegar production generates considerable heat during processing and requires consistent cooling. Historically, the site drew water from a licensed subterranean aquifer to support this process, extracting and returning up to 800,000 cubic metres annually. As production increased, so did the cooling demand.
Following a tender process, ICS Cool Energy’s offering stood out for its comprehensive system design, flexibility, and service capabilities, leading to its selection for the retrofit project.
Simon Murray, Regional Project Manager South at Baxters, said: “It was important for us to work with a supplier that could provide full support throughout. ICS Cool Energy not only delivered the right solution, but their service team was on hand at every step, from installation through commissioning and aftercare.”
ICS Cool Energy provided a retrofit cooling system incorporating a 634kW packaged chiller and a dedicated free cooler. They designed a new closed chilled-water loop that can operate in parallel with the existing borehole system, giving operators the flexibility to switch between the two depending on demand, heat load, or licensing considerations.
Water is circulated from a weir tank through the site’s process equipment and back again. Return water is cooled via a heat exchanger served by the free cooler and the chiller, forming a closed-loop system that significantly reduces reliance on groundwater abstraction. This design ensures year-round cooling capacity while enabling scale-up scenarios and additional equipment installations whilst supporting Baxters environmental programme by reducing water usage.
The new hybrid setup offers the option to switch to borehole water during peak summer periods, optimising operational costs. The flexibility of the system is critical in maintaining regulatory compliance and gives Baxters more control over future production decisions.
“The new system gives us the headroom we needed to expand our operations while staying well within our water abstraction limits,” Simon Murray said. “We now save up to 700 cubic metres of borehole water per day – that’s around 200,000 cubic metres annually.”
ICS Cool Energy’s proactive involvement extended beyond the system delivery and commissioning. From early design to installation and ongoing service, the team worked closely with Baxters to ensure seamless integration with existing operations.
“The confidence we have now comes not from just the system itself, but from knowing we have strong service support behind us,” Murray added. “When we had an unexpected issue with a third-party valve following a power cut, ICS Cool Energy team responded immediately and helped get us back up and running quickly. That kind of responsiveness is invaluable.”
Testimonials:
Simon Murray, Regional Project Manager South at Baxters, said: “It was important for us to work with a supplier that could provide full support throughout. ICS Cool Energy not only delivered the right solution, but their service team was on hand at every step, from installation through commissioning and aftercare.”
“The new system gives us the headroom we needed to expand our operations while staying well within our water abstraction limits,” Simon Murray said. “We now save up to 700 cubic metres of borehole water per day – that’s around 200,000 cubic metres annually.”
“The confidence we have now comes not from just the system itself, but from knowing we have strong service support behind us,” Murray added. “When we had an unexpected issue with a third-party valve following a power cut, ICS Cool Energy team responded immediately and helped get us back up and running quickly. That kind of responsiveness is invaluable.”
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Free cooling chillers
Free Cooling allows businesses to recover up to 80% of their process cooling energy costs by utilising lower ambient temperatures to cool their process application and reducing the need to power the chiller. Available as independent units or integrated with your process chiller, free coolers can be retrofitted into your existing process or installed as part of a turnkey solution. Working with businesses in the manufacturing and facilities management industries, we have lowered their energy costs and reduced their environmental impact through free cooling systems. Given the intrinsically process-heavy nature of the UK’s industrial manufacturing, process cooling is one of the biggest costs incurred. For many industrial end-users, process cooling is achieved solely via an air or water-cooled chiller or cooling tower. However, all industrial applications with a water leaving temperature of 10°C or more – regardless of sector – can start to be cooled via the external ambient air temperature, rather than by electro-mechanical refrigeration, thanks to a process known as free cooling. <strong>Up to 80% energy savings</strong> One of the stand-out benefits of a free cooling system is the sheer amount of energy – and therefore utility bills – it can save. While free cooling can bring about a reduction in energy consumption for any process cooling application with a water leaving temperature of 10°C or more, it should be attractive to larger manufacturers, such as those working in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. Further costs can be saved due to the reduced load on the chiller – particularly the compressors and fans – as they are not worked as hard, or at all in some cases. As such, maintenance costs can be lower over the lifetime of the system. From a health and safety point of view, unlike cooling towers, free cooling systems pose no risk of legionella and therefore do not require additional water treatment costs beyond the norm to mitigate the risk of an outbreak.
Process chillers
Process chillers are designed and built from the ground up to be more reliable, operate within tighter specified tolerances and to be more robust for continued operation when compared to chillers designed for HVAC. Our i-Chillers are specifically designed to cope with the rigours of manufacturing and critical processes. Process chillers may cost slightly more than equivalent HVAC or comfort chillers but are significantly better value and fit for purpose in a critical process. A process chiller will deliver more accurate leaving water temperature, operate trouble free for longer, have a lower op-ex cost and a greater residual value. <strong>Chillers built for process</strong> Our range of process chillers is designed specifically for process, with features such as unique finned coil evaporators immersed inside the cold-water tank, making them less susceptible to freezing and able to cope with variable load and process fluctuations. The large integrated cold side buffer tank enables closer temperature control for process tolerance and reduces wear and tear from compressor start and stop operations. i-Chillers have high-pressure pumps as standard to cope with the more complex pipework found in process applications. Being fully enclosed in robust steel panels not only protects but creates a smaller footprint for ease of access and plug & play installation. <strong>Our approach</strong> Since 1989 we have created bespoke temperature control solutions across all manufacturing, industrial and critical process applications. With a network of highly experienced technical engineers nationwide, we will visit your site to understand your exact application needs and audit your facilities and potential constraints to develop the optimum solution for your circumstances. We can design, install, commission and project manage bespoke turnkey solutions and provide full, tailored 24/7 maintenance & breakdown support with our nationwide service & hire team.