Cataño, Puerto Rico: Renewable Energy from Wastewater Treatment
Bacardi's biggest distillery - and the largest premium distillery in the world - uses its patented anaerobic digester technology to turn wastewater into energy. The company has invested more than $18 million over the past 20 years to implement this process, which combines the treatment of wastewater with the generation of energy to minimize the plant's reliance on fossil fuels. The heart of the treatment facility is an anaerobic digester, where micro-organisms naturally degrade waste materials, creating biogas (methane) in the process. Biogas is then collected and stored before being burned, mostly to create steam, which is used in the distillery to make rum. The wastewater treatment process in Cataño has produced significant quantities of renewable energy: last year the Cataño plant derived more than 30% of its energy requirements from naturally created biogas. The distillery is currently investing almost $7 million to provide a co-generation facility, which will produce electricity from the biogas, to further enhance the site's energy efficiency and its reduced reliance on fossil fuels.Aberfeldy, Scotland: Developing New Wastewater Treatment Techniques
Bacardi's distillery in Aberfeldy, Scotland produces a distinctive single malt scotch whisky that is bottled under the Aberfeldy brand, as well as being at the heart of Dewar's blended Scotch whiskies.The Aberfeldy facility is also home to the Dewar's World of Whisky Visitors' Center, which hosts thousands of visitors each year.
The facility uses an innovative, natural system to treat its wastewater. High-efficiency filtration and evaporation technology allows the plant to isolate solids from fermentation and concentrate syrup (mostly dissolved sugars); these materials are then mixed to produce feed for livestock.
The wastewater from final distillation is treated in an aerobic bioplant that significantly reduces the organic contaminants (measured as biochemical oxygen demand, or BOD), suspended solids, and other contaminants. The wastewater then receives a final treatment: the effluent is directed through a reed bed - a manmade wetland built within a lined containment area.
Wetlands are renowned for their ability to utilize the common organics that make up BOD, removing them and cleansing the water in the process. The level of treatment is excellent: the effluent following treatment is comparable to rainwater runoff from a well-manicured lawn.
Pessione, Italy: Managing Emissions and Energy Consumption
The Martini & Rossi plant in Pessione, Italy, near Turin, is a leader in emissions management. The facility, which produces twelve million cases per year and is Bacardi's largest bottling operation worldwide, has EHS management systems that are certified according to the rigorous ISO 14000 and OHSAS 18000 international standards.Highlights of the facility's emissions control and energy consumption measures include:
- Wastewater is treated through a Bacardi-patented anaerobic treatment system that is powered by renewable energy created within the process.
- Water from bottle rinsing is recycled for use elsewhere, including in the plant's cooling towers. In financial year 2007, the site improved its water use efficiency by conserving an extra twenty million liters of potable water.
- 92.5% of operational waste is recycled, including solids such as paper, wood, glass, cartons, metal, and plastic.
- Electricity consumption is optimized with a computer control system that balances out requirements across the plant and improves efficiency. This, along with other projects, helped the plant improve its overall energy efficiency in FY 2007 by more than 10%.
Jacksonville, Florida: Improving Processes and Winning Environmental Awards
The Bacardi facility in Jacksonville, our largest bottling facility in the Americas region, has taken important steps in recent years to bolster its environmental performance. As a result, the facility in 2006 realized important improvements, including enhancing its energy efficiency by 4% and cutting its water use by more than 10% from the previous year.This was achieved by investment in equipment and teams working to make improvements. The investment included installation of a forced draft aerator and carbon towers in November 2005, eliminating extensive flushing of the facility's water purification system.
These improvements resulted in the facility receiving the following environmental awards in the past year:
- The JEA Industrial Pretreatment (IP) Environmental Stewardship Award. JEA is a major Jacksonville utility with electric, water, and sewage services.
- The Pollution Prevention Award for significant environmental improvements using prevention strategies taken from the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable, which promotes the "development, implementation, and evaluation of efforts to avoid, eliminate, or reduce waste generated to air, land, and water."
- Establishing separate water conservation and energy use teams at the site to identify new pollution prevention opportunities;
- Improved handling techniques that resulted in reduced alcohol spillage and therefore less waste discharged into the sewer system;
- Recirculating, wherever possible, air in the plant's production process; and
- Installing aerators that eliminate the need for flushing the water purification units and enable water that is too "hard" to use in production to be instead used to irrigate the facility grounds.
Buxtehude, Germany: Attaining Environment and Health & Safety Leadership
Bacardi's facility in Buxtehude, Germany, near Hamburg, has been operating a Quality Management System, certified to international standard ISO 9000, for more than ten years.Building from the Quality results, the site team decided that application of management systems using international standards comparable to ISO 14000 (the Environment)) and OHSAS 18000 (Health and Safety) would provide similar benefits to the operation.
Over the last 18 months, upgraded management systems have been implemented at the facility. These have now been certified by external auditors Det Norske Veritas as being in accordance with international standards.
The benefits have been strong, with improved performance in all areas. For example, in the last 12 months energy efficiency has improved by more than 5%, water use has declined by 20%, and the lost time accident rate has declined by 31%.
Nanjangud, India: Achieving Both Recycling and Renewable Energy
Bacardi's operations in Nanjangud in southern India turn industrial by-products into clean, usable resources.Gemini Distilleries is Bacardi's rum-producing joint venture partner in India. The rum distillery takes the runoff from molasses fermentation and turns it into renewable energy. The distillery effluent passes through an anaerobic digester, where bacteria degrade the waste products and give off biogas (methane) as a by-product. The biogas then is burned to create high-pressure steam, which powers a turbine, generating electricity. Finally, the exhaust steam is used for distilling rum.
Gemini also practices bio-composting, which reuses the anaerobic digester's effluent to create organic manure rich in minerals and nitrogen and fit for agricultural and horticultural purposes. The fertilizer is resold in the local community, benefiting both Gemini and the environment.
Bacardi's bottling plant also utilizes many environment-friendly practices, especially involving water use and quality-critical environmental issues across India.
These include a system of filtering and reusing rinse water, and water demineralization plants that recycle water for gardening and tree planting on facility grounds.
