30.03.2023
A Visit to the Wahl Bakery in Bestensee, Germany
Replacement of the entire oven and refrigeration technology during ongoing operation
A strong partner is exactly what you need when it comes to completing production expansion projects during ongoing operations, including not only major upgrades but also the complete replacement of the oven and refrigeration technology. The Wahl bakery found such partner in MIWE. The Arnstein (in Germany)-based system manufacturer was able to win over the bakery with its coherent overall concept including loading technology and energy recovery, while also scoring especially high marks in terms of baking results and customer service.
You can hardly miss it when you arrive by train in Bestensee, a small community about 35 km south of Berlin city centre: the Wahl bakery café. Here, at the station forecourt immediately in the city centre, the Wahl family fulfilled their long-awaited dream of owning their own café. When it opened in the beginning of 2016, the family had already enjoyed a strong presence in the region with 30 other bakery outlets. In addition to the extremely spacious café with 65 seats and a generous terrace, the modern building complex includes a hairdresser and several flats on the two upper floors. In the bakery café itself, you can feel the close proximity to the station at every corner – plenty of creativity and attention to detail has been put into the furnishings.
A station clock hangs on the wall and locomotives adorn the room divider shelf. As soon as the current Covid-lockdown is over, the wide range of cakes, tarts and snacks, hot lunches or dinners as well as the ice cream they produce can be enjoyed here again. For example, you can eat in the area of the café designed to look like a dining car or in the niches modelled on historical train compartments – including luggage racks with nostalgic suitcases overhead. It’s plain to see: the coherent concept and the first café for the bakery, which is already popular in the region, has also been very well received by customers.
On course for growth thanks to well-considered investments
The café demonstrates that at Wahl Bakery, they move with the times and are not afraid to invest and break new ground – as long as everything is well thought out. This may be one of the keys to the company’s continued success even in times of increased competitive pressure. The success story began in the 1970s, when married couple Inge and Karl-Heinz Wahl took up the bakery trade as early as 1972. But the premises of the small bakery (first in Volkstedt, later in Bestensee, Germany) quickly became too small. The production site in the small business area of Bestensee, which the company moved into in 2005, quickly started to burst at the seams. The company, which was being managed by their daughter Anett Wahl by that time, had grown into a medium-sized business with 30 branches and around 230 employees and was facing an important decision in 2017. The decision was then made to construct a new building adjacent to the old one, creating new premises for a spacious, modern equipped bakery as well as for the administrative office. In the course of this extensive expansion, the entire oven and refrigeration technology was also replaced, bringing in two deck ovens MIWE ideal e+ with an automatic loading system MIWE athlet, three rack ovens MIWE roll-in e+, three fully automatic proofing machines MIWE GVA and 3 climate chambers MIWE KR into the new halls in 2018. The overall package was rounded off by an energy concept where the heat recovery system MIWE eco:nova was to play the central role.
Oven, loading and refrigeration technology including an energy concept – all from a single source
The choice of oven system was straightforward. Deck ovens and rack ovens were also used in the old bakery – depending on the desired baking characteristics and the suitability of the products. But only MIWE was able to offer a coherent overall package consisting of the two oven systems, appropriate loading solutions, the required refrigeration technology as well as heat recovery. With these dimensions, this is something that pays off very quickly. MIWE not only offers all of these concept components from a single source, but it also develops, plans and produces the system itself.
More energy efficiency thanks to economical technology
The Wahl bakery faces challenges that will likely be familiar to most distributors in Europe. Producing baked goods requires large amounts of energy, which as we all know, is becoming increasingly expensive. A considerable proportion of the energy consumption results from the energy required for the baking process, i. e. the ovens are inevitably among the largest energy consumers in the bakery.
At MIWE, this is counteracted firstly by designing the ovens (and refrigeration systems) in such a way that they use energy as sparingly as possible from the very start. MIWE only awards the e+ seal of quality to products that are particularly exemplary in terms of energy efficiency, which means that the Wahl bakery has already taken the first important step toward greater energy efficiency by opting for the three rack ovens MIWE roll-in e+ and the two deck ovens MIWE ideal e+.
More energy efficiency with clever heat recovery
Secondly, MIWE has developed solutions that cleverly use the heat required for the baking process twice instead of simply letting it dissipate after baking.
That is why the Wahl bakery is using the MIWE eco:nova in its new bakery. This is a heat recovery system where the excess energy in the flue gas and steam is fed to a heat exchanger, which in turn transfers it to another medium (water), heating it up to 75 °C. In this process, the waste heat from the steam and flue gas is fed to the MIWE eco:nova entirely separately, each with its own pipes, as this is the only way to make the most effective use of the different energy densities of the two media and maximise the overall efficiency.
The hot water produced in the heat exchanger is stored in buffer tanks and the free energy obtained in this way is used in the underfloor heating and the sanitary facilities, but also finds grateful consumers in the climate chambers MIWE KR, the fully automatic proofing units MIWE GVA and the crate washing system.
Reliable energy recovery – calculable savings potential
As logical and sensible as all this may sound, the most frequently asked question in this context is: is it worth it? The Wahl bakery also asked itself this question. And rightly so, because an investment in a heat recovery system can only be considered worthwhile if you can also recoup the money invested. But the savings that can be achieved depend on the very individual circumstances on-site, such as the running times for the systems and the amount of dough to be baked. MIWE therefore always develops its energy concepts based on a detailed case-by-case analysis – which was also carried out at the Wahl bakery. However, this kind of concept is only truly conclusive if it not only takes into account where the quantities of energy can be generated, but also where this energy can be put to good use again.
With this in mind, the Wahl bakery provided the MIWE energy consultant with detailed information on its baking quantities, baking area, baking times, steam feed, product range, etc. so that the savings potential and the payback period could be calculated, and the consumption figures for the crate washing system, the proofing chambers, the heating system, etc. could also be included. If no concrete consumption figures for heating and hot water are available for a new building, MIWE then uses the figures from bakeries with comparable production and building sizes as a guide – as was the case with the Wahl bakery. The spatial conditions, the processes and energy flows as well as the targets over the years to come are also taken into account during the energy analysis.
The detailed energy flow analysis carried out in this process differentiates between summer and winter. This is because although much of the waste heat can be used for heating in winter, the opposite is true in summer. The demand for heat drops rapidly, while the demand for cooling increases. Finally, the carefully detailed amortisation calculation takes into account all of the business and energy data, the system, installation and running costs as well as ongoing savings. It then clearly calculates the amortisation period with and without a loan (in each case for two different energy concepts), taking into account any subsidy options.
This kind of analysis clearly involves a measure of effort, as it also requires a certain amount of personal input from the bakers who are to be advised. However, the effort put into searching for the costs and data is well worth it in the vast majority of cases. In the case of the Wahl bakery, they were certainly impressed by the analysis and the concept developed for the bakery. The energy recovery system MIWE eco:nova is now doing its job at the back of the rack ovens as a space-saving solution.
There’s more to it than just energy
Using precious resources responsibly and sparingly is certainly very good for the wallet as well as the environment. But investing in energy recovery from MIWE is bringing even more benefits for the Wahl bakery.
Firstly, the MIWE eco:nova helps purify the flue gases of sulphur dioxide with flue gas scrubbing using limestone, thereby reducing odours by approx. 77 %. Secondly, it also reduces noise emissions by approx. 15 dB. These are important arguments for the Wahl bakery, after all, the production premises are located in a mixed commercial/residential area and the nearest residences are just over a hundred metres away. The number of chimneys has also been drastically reduced. Instead of one chimney per oven, only one central chimney is now used. Even if more ovens are added over the next few years, they can easily be connected to the existing pipe system to the MIWE eco:nova. This has not only saved on pipework during installation, but also significantly reduces ongoing costs for a chimney sweep.
"The products are different now, they are simply better.
They also look better."
The baking results are what count
When you ask Anett Wahl why she chose MIWE, her answer is clear: “Energy and energy recovery is always a hot topic that is widely discussed. Energy recovery is important, of course, but in the end it’s the products that come out of the oven that count. We don’t impress our customers with the energy we save but with the quality of our products. For me, that means the most important thing is still that the ovens achieve great baking results. And that is was simply convinced us with MIWE.” But the energy recovery system can even make a positive contribution when it comes to the baking results. The chimney draught is also controlled via the MIWE eco:nova. Each baking oven is controlled individually and dynamically, with a forced extraction system ensuring a constant overall draught. This in turn means that fluctuations in the baking results due to air pressure can be avoided and the quality of the baked goods is consistently high, regardless of the weather conditions.
Impressive quality
And Ms Wahl is certainly convinced of the quality of the baked goods: “The products are different now, they are better. They also look better. Our most important item is our stone-baked bread. And with stone-baked bread, I expect a very loose crumb and a great crispy crust. And even with the first test bake, the results were fantastic!” Oven Manager Mathias Tietz is also extremely satisfied with the quality: “We now have a very nice, crispy crust and a very nice crumb. Our breads are shining again – that wasn’t the case before.” But there is also another reason for him to feel a sense of satisfaction. The new deck ovens no longer have to be loaded manually. The automatic loading system MIWE athlet now takes over this incredibly strenuous physical work for him and his colleagues.
“A huge relief”
The pain of the long, hot summer of 2018 can still be felt by Oven Manager Mathias Tietz and his colleagues. With every extra degree of heat in the bakehouse, which is always cosy and warm anyway, makes the back-breaking job of loading each shelf even more arduous. The old deck ovens were no longer “steam-tight”, in other words every time steam was used, the bakehouse also got hotter and hotter. Those days are behind us now. Firstly, the amount of steam could be radically reduced, because the steam stays where it is needed now, which again has a positive effect on the energy balance in the bakery. “We now only need a significantly smaller amount of steam in the oven to achieve the quality we want.” Secondly, the loading system also conserves valuable energy and saves precious time. Several ovens can be loaded and unloaded in no time at all and completely automatically. This is very well received by oven managers like Mathias Tietz: “I have to say, I really like our new way of working – it’s a lot easier. We don’t have to push boxes back and forth anymore, we don’t have to manoeuvre the turning boards upstairs, no more physical effort, it all works automatically.”
Loading made easy thanks to crawler and turning functions
Small wheat breads such as the “Schrippen” roll and baguette roll, for example, are already placed on peelboards in the dough making section, which can then be conveniently moved to the proofing area on trolleys to save space. At the ovens, the employees then simply place the peelboards onto the pick-up system directly from the trolley, and from there the dough pieces are gently crawled up from the boards. Once a deck surface is complete, the dough pieces are transferred to the loading system MIWE athlet, which then loads the previously selected oven. In this process, the control system always shows the user which oven is free and maintains the optimum temperature for the selected baking programme. But the system can do even more, because the dough pieces can be turned 180 degrees when they are transferred to the MIWE athlet. This function is used at the Wahl bakery, for example, for the crusty bread but also for the baguette rolls: “We can push crusty breads over it – we no longer have to turn them ourselves by hand. The oven section does that for us now, it’s all automatic.”
"I have to say, I really like our new way of working!
It's a lot easier."
Bake out in minute cycles
The stone-oven breads, on the other hand, are placed directly onto the placement belt from the proofing baskets and scored at the ergonomically advantageous working height of 90 cm before going into the oven. Several ovens are loaded and baked here in no time at all, too – because this is also done completely automatically. This simplifies and shortens the work of Oven Manager Mathias Tietz immensely: “We just have to put the bread on and score it, just like we are always used to. Then it’s into the oven, and the bread is baked automatically according to the baking time. Then it then goes directly into our boxes via conveyor belts. In the past, we always had to stand there with the pusher and fill the boxes. All by hand, of course. It’s a huge relief for us, which we’re very happy about.”
Automation is not at the expense of craftsmanship
The automation methods that are saving energy and speeding up processes at Wahl Bakery are achieving the targeted rationalisation effect, but they certainly do not come at the expense of product craftsmanship. Because a lot of manual work is still required in the bakery in Bestensee and, in addition to carefully selected raw materials, the doughs are given the time and rest they need during the long proofing to achieve their excellent aroma.
So even though the complete renovation of the bakery has changed a lot, and many things are now easier and quicker to do, in terms of attitude to the product and understanding of the craft, everything is the same. And that’s also a good thing.
Technology for central production
From production baking ovens, including loading and transport, to bakery refrigeration technology and energy efficiency systems: our website gives you an overview of our solutions for your bakery and, of course, all the details about our technology for central production.
