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Pharma / Chemical
Merck Reduces Cooling Energy Use by 21% with AI Optimization
<1 year
amortization period
21 %
average reduction in electricity use for cooling
Darmstadt, Germany
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At its headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, Merck reduced electricity use for cooling by 21% through AI-based energy optimization using the etaONE® software platform from etalytics. The software autonomously optimizes a segment of the site’s cooling system, showing how AI energy optimization can deliver measurable savings in large-scale cooling systems.
In pharmaceutical and life science production environments, large-scale cooling systems are a key operational area. This makes industrial cooling optimization an important topic in the context of pharmaceutical manufacturing energy efficiency.
This success story is based on the press release: Merck Cuts Cooling Energy by 21% with AI
Initial Challenge
Merck’s headquarters in Darmstadt is its largest global research and production site, with more than 12,000 employees and over 25,000 products manufactured across Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. The site also is one of Merck’s largest energy consumers.
Cooling is a key energy driver at the site, with more than 20 million cubic meters of chilled water circulated annually. The overall cooling demand is largely driven by the air conditioning of laboratories, offices, and storage areas.
Merck has set a target to reduce CO₂ emissions by 50% by 2030 compared with 2020 and to achieve full climate neutrality by 2040.
The Solution
Merck used etaONE®, an AI-based software platform for real-time industrial energy optimization of HVAC and cooling systems in critical infrastructure. The platform evaluates real-time system behavior and environmental conditions to orchestrate energy-efficient operation across components.
At the Darmstadt site, etaONE® optimizes the operation of chillers, cooling towers, and pump systems through a pressure-based system model. The model replicates the hydraulic behavior of the cooling system, enabling the AI to track and optimize pressure levels in real time while maintaining consistent cooling performance.
After an initial test run in March, etaONE® transitioned to full autonomous operation within two weeks and has been running continuously since.
Measured Results
- 21% average reduction in electricity use for cooling in the optimized system segment within three months compared with previous operation
- No modifications to the existing infrastructure were required
- No disruption to ongoing production processes
These savings were achieved solely through improved control logic and system coordination. The project contributes directly to Merck’s sustainability targets.
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What's Next
Further enhancements are already in preparation. Merck and etalytics plan to extend the optimization to additional cooling assets and integrate predictive maintenance use cases, starting with automated cleaning recommendations for cooling tower filters.
In Collaboration With
The project is part of EISKIG, coordinated by the ETA research group at TU Darmstadt and funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. Within the project, Merck provides real-world application scenarios and system data, while etalytics delivers digital twin models and optimization logic. The collaboration between Merck and etalytics will continue beyond the scope of the EISKIG project.
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