Food And Beverage Case Study

Beverage co. produces bottled purified water, flavored drinks and canned juices. The company also, produces bottled and canned drinks, as a part of manufacturing processes, water, carbon dioxide, sugar and other additives are involved. Water is a major component, making up to 50-70% of the drinks. Besides being a major component, water is also crucial in the cooling process during various manufacturing. Water is used for dilution, dissolving of the sugars, washing the bottles and cleaning of the floors. The process of manufacturing involves clarifying of water, filtering, mixing, carbonating and filling.

For the above processes energy is obtained from coal, electricity, diesel and batteries. However, coal is only used in the clarification

During this task, processes were analyzed in detail to determine the inputs and outputs to be included in the mass balances which would be the basis for CP opportunities evaluation. The evaluation guidelines are as follows:

On-site inspection activities:

 Identify all wastewater discharges including leaks and spills.

 Monitor the process unit operations to identify unmeasured or undocumented releases of products and wastes.

 Make necessary measurements to identify flow rates of specific discharge sources.

 Make necessary experiments to characterize wastewater sources where there are obvious CP opportunities or high pollution loads to environment.

 Interview the operators in the targeted drink manufacturing processing areas to identify operating parameters, wastewater generation and spill reduction opportunities.

 Evaluate the general conditions of the processing equipment.

 Examine housekeeping practices throughout the facility.

 Check for spillage and leaks at the equipment

 Check waste storage area for proper waste segregation.

Environmental

Ideally all unit operations should have been selected as a target for cleaner production but with the past experience it is common for Cleaner Production assessments to focus on those processes that:

 Generate a large quantity of waste and emissions

 Need a lot of energy and raw material

 Use or produce hazardous chemicals and materials

 Entail a high financial loss;

 Have numerous obvious Cleaner Production benefits

Environmental, Technical and Economic Concerns

Typical sources of problems at the site

Typical sources problems at the site

Solid waste

Soil pollution

Noise

Air emissions Plastic bottles

Spilled waste oil dumped waste oil

Engines and compressors Bottling hall

Combustion gases from boilers

Occupational health and safety problems

Noise in the bottling hall

Handling of caustic soda

Recommendations

1: Utilization of condensate:

Any process that allows energy contained in Steam condensate to go unutilized, is losing money in terms of fuel costs. Steam condenses to water at saturated temperature and so, depending on the pressure during condensation, the temperature of water may be 100 *C or more. Heat content in condensate is about 20% of the fuel energy burnt in the boiler. This is usable heat energy; it would be waste of money and