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The quest for sustainability excellence

Six innovative food manufacturers garner top awards in diverse green projects including water reclamation, clean power, chemical usage reduction, CO2 recovery and reuse, and more.

The water reclamation skid at Snyder's-Lance allows water to be reused the process. By using less fresh water, the plant also lowers its water treatment costs.
The water reclamation skid at Snyder's-Lance allows water to be reused the process. By using less fresh water, the plant also lowers its water treatment costs.

Generosity is a hallmark of the winners of the 2016 Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Awards, who were honored at this year’s ProFood Tech in April. Whether it was sharing successful ideas within a company, or even between potential competitors, the winners often received a helping hand from others before them who had found ways to manufacture food, beverages and consumer products more sustainably. In turn, they’re also paying these ideas forward to help others innovate.

Sponsored by the PMMI’s OpX Leadership Network, the awards honor exceptional sustainability achievements within manufacturing operations. These peer-reviewed awards seek to honor companies that go beyond simple environmental compliance to achieve sustainable ways to drive improved business performance. 

The OpX Leadership Network is a community of manufacturing, engineering and operations professions dedicated to operational excellence. It provides a forum to identify and solve common operational challenges, and apply best practices and innovative solutions to the real-world context of manufacturing.

The 2016 winners for projects and programs conducted from 2015 through 2016 are, in the Projects category, Snyder’s-Lance, Inc., Perry, FL, first place; Pepperidge Farm, Inc., Bloomfield, CT, second place; and Keystone Foods, Camilla, GA, third place. In the Program category, the winners are Smithfield Foods, Arnold, PA, first place; Smithfield Packaged Food Group, Kinston, NC, second place; and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Mills River, NC, third place.

Reclaiming process water

Snyder’s-Lance

Perry, FL

Project, 1st Place

It takes a lot of water to peel potatoes mechanically. By finding a way to reclaim and reuse the water from its peeling process, the Snyder’s-Lance potato chip manufacturing plant in Perry, FL, both dramatically reduce its use of fresh water and produce cleaner peeled potatoes. The plant also lowered its wastewater treatment costs.

The project was driven by a company-wide search for cost-saving initiatives and sustainability-minded ideas, according to Wesley McGhee, corporate environmental engineer. “The reaction from employees to this project has been really positive. It’s sparked their imaginations, and they’ve been coming forward with their own ideas for additional projects to use less water or improve other plant processes. They see it as an investment in their plant, a way of expressing ownership.”

The plant partnered with Vanmark Equipment, which developed the first commercial potato peeler in 1954, to design and install equipment to reuse water on the spot in the peeling operation for both of its potato chip lines. The plant makes potato chips for the Cape Cod and Toms brands.

A steady stream of water is needed to feed the peelers. By splitting the spray bar inside the peeler, water can be returned, after being filtered to remove large fines and starch, to the first three of four spray nozzles. The fourth nozzle feeds fresh water as a final rinse and makeup water before potatoes leave the peel chamber.

“The project not only reduced the amount of fresh water required from 15 gpm to an average of 2 gpm going to each peeler, but by returning the water that’s captured we have effectively increased the amount of water pressure going through each spray bar, resulting in a higher peel removal,” explains McGhee.

Reducing the amount of water required for peeling also reduces the amount of wastewater that needs to be treated, as well as chemical usage, discharge water costs and man-hours. “Since the starch is removed at the water reclamation unit, as opposed to being removed at water treatment as sludge, it can be recycled as organic waste, which is less costly and more environmentally friendly,” he says.

The project was submitted for funding in October 2015 and went online in January 2016. Equipment and installation costs totaled $250,00, contrasted with an estimated $55,000 in annual water savings and additional savings at wastewater treatment. The project is on track to save more than 4 million gallons of water annually from the potato peeling operations. McGhee estimates a payback period of five years or less.

While the project was similar to one at the company’s plant in Cape Cod, MA, it was tailored for the overall scope of the Perry location and included additional automation and control. “The design aim at our other facility was compliance with daily discharge limits for wastewater and water usage, but our priority at Perry was reducing costs,” he says.

“We’ve learned several things since the reclamation system was installed,” adds McGhee, “including the importance of cleaning spray nozzles during sanitation periods, as well as managing feed rates at a related defoamer to keep the area clean.” 

Clean power from fuel cells

Pepperidge Farm 

Bloomfield, CT

Project, 2nd Place

A reliable power source is essential for any manufacturing process, but electrical grid power, with its dips and sags, can sometimes cause machines to stutter or fail. The Pepperidge Farm bakery in Bloomfield, CT, eliminated that problem by installing fuel cells that deliver ultra-clean and reliable power from natural gas. 

As an additional benefit, “The high-quality heat from the fuel cells is utilized to generate hot water and to preheat supply air entering the thermal oxidizer used for VOC destruction,” explains Harry Pettit, senior project manager for controls and environmental management at the facility, which is part of the Campbell Soup Company.

A second fuel cell was installed at the plant in 2016. Together they generate 2.6 megawatts of clean and continuous on-site power plus heat for the 260,000-sq.-ft. facility. The fuel cells provide 90 percent of the plant’s electricity needs, with another 10 percent coming from a 1 MW solar array. 

Since the fuel cell power generation process avoids combustion and so is virtually pollutant-free, it helps advance Pepperidge Farm’s sustainability goals, which include generating 40 percent of its electricity needs through renewable energy. The fuel cells have a compact footprint and operate quietly, which are additional benefits. 

By using fuel cell power, the environment annually avoids 43 tons of smog-producing nitrogen oxide (NOx), 98 tons of sulfur dioxide (Sox) that causes acid rain, and 4,500 pounds of particulate matter that can aggravate asthma, according to Pettit.

Construction on the new fuel cell system began in late 2015 and was completed nine months later. The aggregate electricity generation rate will be $.02/kwh less than the rate sourced from the grid, delivering a projected ROI of 18 percent. The fuel cells are expected to generate 10 million kWh of electrical power every year. At the end of its life, approximately 93 percent of the power plant will be re-used or recycled.

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