Water
Water is an important resource for the various production processes within VION. We work on reduction programmes.
And in many VION plants, this water is thoroughly cleaned in the company’s own waste water purification plants before recycling or returning to the mains system. The water sometimes undergoes further cleaning in a municipal sewage water purification plant, after which the purified water flows away to the surface water. As a rule, the quality of the purified water is similar to or better than that of the surface water.
SNP Lingen: water purification as a source of energy
| A new waste water purification system was installed at the VION Ingredients site in Lingen (Germany). The combination of purification and simultaneous generation of green electricity is quite special. Where we initially purified the water by adding oxygen, we have now combined high-oxygen (i.e. aerobic) and low-oxygen (i.e. anaerobic) waste water purification. Switching over to low-oxygen purification has enabled us to reduce our use of electricity, since we no longer need electricity to add oxygen. At the same time, we produce biogas by degrading the organic pollutants contained in the water in a low-oxygen environment. This biogas is the fuel for a gas- fired engine that generates green power in an efficient and sustainable manner. All in all, this enables us to achieve net annual savings of 1.83 million kWh. This corresponds with the energy consumption of more than 500 households. An additional benefit is that we managed to achieve a better purification efficiency, enabling the Lingen site to be expanded and local requirements to be satisfied. |
VION Llangefni: water savings at slaughterhouses
The VION team at the Llangefni site (VION Food UK) has managed to substantially reduce its water usage. In 2006, one million litres of water would be used on an average production day. However, in 2010, this was reduced by 40%, thanks to simple techniques which were often quite cheap, or in some instances, did not cost anything at all.
An important element of this water saving scheme is the daily monitoring of the water consumption. To achieve this the site installed water meters on the water supply pipes at central locations and in separate departments. We regularly monitor the water levels and have included this as a fixed agenda item for the daily management team meetings.
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