How can the F&B manufacturing industry recycle more from waste?
Article
Food and Beverage
It’s rare for a day to pass without news coverage relating to climate change related disasters or the pressure that is being put on resources and people’s pockets. So it’s absolutely right that sustainability is high on the agenda of many manufacturers. It not only makes sense from an environmental perspective, it makes sense from a cost perspective too as they continue to spiral.
The nature of the Food and Beverage manufacturing process means that it often uses a lot of water, which not only produces a lot of waste water to handle, but also produces organic waste. Fortunately, this also gives the industry a good basis to recycle more. We explore the 3 main ways below:
Recycling treated wastewater into your plant not only makes sense from an environmental perspective, it can save you a significant costs on your freshwater intake. Water harvesting has been used widely for many years for use in wash-downs, cleaning, toilet flushing, etc.
At Ringsend Wastewater treatment works in Ireland (operated by our sister company Celtic Anglian Water for Irish Water), the waste water treatment plant recycles effluent water as wash water onsite and UF water onsite. They produce about 500m3 per day of UF water onsite which means they significantly reduce the quantity of mains water they import for running the processes onsite.
The waste product produced as part of the water treatment process, affectionately known as “sludge”, can be used to pelletise and re-sell as high value fertiliser. This not only provides an additional income stream but it’s good to know it is returning to the land as part of the circular economy.
Other means of recycling this product is via a biomass boiler where the sludge is dried and fed to a boiler to be burnt, the power produced from the boiler is then re-used as a renewable product.
There is a huge opportunity for the industry, water companies and waste treatment specialists to collaborate to find more creative and tangible ways to re-purpose and recycle trade effluent.
Producing energy from wastewater is one of the most notable opportunities for recycling waste. This is achieved through Anaerobic Digestion, a process where microorganisms breakdown organic matter in wet waste such as food, sewage sludge and manure, in order to produce biogas. The biogas can then be used to produce heat and power, and digestate which can be used as a fertiliser as it is rich in Nitrogen. Here are some examples of how the gas can be used:
Gas to grid: To generate income by supplying cleaned gas back to the grid.
Combined heat and power: Heat created can be reused in the process, and the energy created can be used to power in the treatment plant or manufacturing facility. At the Ringsend Waste Water Treatment plant in Dublin electricity generated is used to help power the plan and the steam is used to help improve the digestibility of the biosolids being fed to the Anaerobic digester, which improves its efficiency.
Gas to boilers: Cleaned gas can be supplied to on-site steam boilers. The Glenmorangie Distillery (who also happen to be one of our Operations and Maintenance customers) clean the raw biogas generated from the Anaerobic Digester and feed it directly to a steam boiler than runs on the cleaned biogas to supply a proportion of their demand.
It’s our belief that working to develop solutions that help us towards circular economy is crucial for all industries, but equally is important is helping to educate consumers and the general public about the benefits of using recycled water and to reassure them of the purity. Follow us on LinkedIn to keep up to date with news on innovation and campaigns to improve recycling and re-use of waste water.
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