Cadbury Trebor Bassett
Case Study: Reducing Water Use
FDF members are committed to making significant reductions in water use to help
reduce stress on the nation's water supplies. Here are two examples of current
best practice – showing what is possible by work which has been undertaken or
is
now underway in this area.
Cadbury Trebor Bassett is committed to reducing water use and is saving about
15% per year at its cocoa processing site at Chirk, North Wales, equivalent to
approximately 17 million litres per annum.
The site uses water for a variety of reasons, including generating steam for
process heat, running cooling towers and cleaning. As part of the site
environmental
agenda, Cadbury Trebor Bassett invested around £2m in an onsite wastewater
treatment plant to clean up effluent arising from the manufacturing process.
Waste water from the factory is passed through a number of different treatment
stages. The primary stages include removing suspended solid material by
dissolved
air flotation and using submerged biological filters to remove biodegradable
material. The final stage involves using a combination of microfiltration and
reverse
osmosis membranes to turn the effluent into high quality clean water.
The quality of the treated water is such that the company is able to re-use it
for certain 'grey water' applications (e.g. to feed boilers to raise steam)
located outside of the main factory building away from all ingredients and
product.
As a result of its investment, Cadbury Trebor Bassett has been able to reduce
demand for water usage at the site by about 15% per year resulting in a saving
in
water costs of around £10,000 per annum.
To build on this success, the company is currently exploring other opportunities
outside of the main factory building such as use in the site's cooling towers.
More Information
This case study is featured in FDF's Five-Fold Ambition: The Environment – Making a Real Difference
Report (pdf, 878kb).
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Last reviewed: 19 Sep 2008