A well-known and popular coffee manufacturer is now benefitting from a new chemical effluent treatment contract with Veolia Water Technologies.
The specialist’s UK supply chain means a regular supply of chemicals can be guaranteed all year round, allowing the factory to run 24/7 and increase its output. The partnership has also allowed the manufacturer to optimise more of its processes on site to maximise potential and reduce unnecessary costs.
As one of the largest coffee manufacturers in Europe, its UK factory is key to its operation, producing up to 250,000 jars of coffee a day. In doing so, the site generates a significant volume of wastewater, which it endeavours to recycle and reuse wherever possible. Veolia Water Technologies was initially contracted to provide chemicals and onsite services to the site’s effluent treatment plant (ETP) as the manufacturer was keen to have a more reliable chemical UK based supply chain and access to effluent service expertise and support.
Given its significant chemicals storage facility in Billingham, Veolia Water Technologies was able to guarantee next day delivery of chemicals should the factory require it, a considerable improvement on the customer’s existing supply chain. The chemical storage on site was also upgraded, allowing greater volumes to be held safely at the factory and contributing to more consistent availability. Veolia Water Technologies offered a tailored service contract as part of the agreement to support ETP operations.
Furthermore, Veolia Water Technologies’ chemicals solutions have helped to optimise the site’s reverse osmosis (RO) unit, which has led to a number of operational improvements. For example, the Hydrex™ 4101 antiscalant now ensures that the RO unit can operate consistently and efficiently at higher rates of recovery. This, combined with Veolia Water Technologies’ food-grade approved Hydrex™ 4301 antiscalant and a Non Oxidising Biocide, allows the RO system to run freely and efficiently whilst allowing the customer to recycle treated effluent and use it as process water feed for cooling towers on site.
By enabling more efficient treatment of the site’s effluent, Veolia Water Technologies has been able to increase the level of water that can be recycled for use in the site’s cooling towers. This has reduced the cooling tower’s reliance on mains water and helped to reduce costs further. Meanwhile the amount of water the facility discharges to drain has also been reduced, avoiding the likelihood of fines for exceeding government mandated discharge levels.
Finally, Veolia Water Technologies has optimised the ETP’s solids removal process, ultimately lowering the Chemical Oxygen Demand levels in the final effluent discharge. The site’s wastewater is treated with a Hydrex™ polymer that aids solids separation from the wastewater in two centrifuges. This not only prepares the water for the next step in the effluent treatment process, but it also allows for the solid waste to be extracted with a low moisture content, enabling the spent coffee grounds to be utilised as fuel in the boilers on site.
David Broster, Business Development Manager at Veolia Water Technologies, said:
“By working closely with the customer we were able to understand the needs of the site and develop a tailored contract and approach that in turn delivered numerous results.
“Thanks to our UK supply chain we can guarantee a consistent supply of water treatment chemicals allowing the factory to produce coffee 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Due to the size and scale of the operations at the site an outage due to problems with the ETP could be incredibly costly. Therefore, it was crucial that we could deliver the relevant support to ensure this didn’t happen.
“We have also helped the team to optimise processes, reduce operational costs and
our field service chemists now make regular calls to check the system and ensure it is running optimally at all times.”
