Nestle USA
Morton, Illinois
Timothy Scholtz
Bradley University, Peoria
The Nestlé USA facility in Morton produces over 70 million pounds
of Libby’s solid pack pumpkin and pumpkin pie mix every year. The
plant operates 24-hours a day during production from mid-August to early
November. The maintenance department spends the rest of the year conducting
preventive maintenance, making process improvements and preparing systems
for the next production run.
Wastewater flow during production reaches 800,000 gallons per day. The
wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) consists of four lagoons and two spray
fields. The main goal of the WWTP is to lower the BOD5 (Biological Oxygen
Demand) and the TSS (Total Suspended Solids) to meet its permit conditions
prior to discharge to a nearby stream. In the event of high BOD5 and TSS,
the flow is diverted to the local POTW for treatment. The intern investigated
various projects including the lagoon’s algal growth inhibition,
and solid waste disposal.
Result:
- Sugar that is added to the pumpkin pie mix is a major contributor
to the BOD5 and TSS loadings going to the lagoons. The intern made the
suggestion to Nestle’s technical corporate staff to investigate
the feasibility of recycling recovered sugars from a multiple effect
evaporator and reuse either in house or at its confectionary plant in
Bloomington. The sugar reclamation project will take years to meet testing
standards, corporate approval, and implementation. Despite this, its
benefits can’t be understated; sugar material savings are $754,000
per year for the Morton facility and $211,000 for the Bloomington facility.
In the meantime, samples of the wastewater will be sent to Tekleen Filters
Inc in California to determine the type of filter necessary for Nestle’s
application. The precise amount of filtration achievable is unknown
until results are obtained. For every 2% of solids reclaimed from the
water savings is $16,400.
- Barley straw was trialed in one of the wastewater lagoons to control
planktonic algae growth. Barley straw should be deployed in the spring
at a dosage rate of 250 to 300lbs per surface acre, before algae growth
occurs. This should save approximately $37,000 dollars per year in city
water treatment charges.
- Pending the nutritional composition tests by Centralia Animal Disease
Labs, and the corresponding acceptance of Food Waste Solutions of the
pumpkin pulp, the intern recommended that Nestlé pursue this
option to dispose as much of the solid pumpkin pulp as FWS will accept.
The charges are approximately $10/ton less than the current contract
and should result in a rough estimate of savings of $24,000 to $57,000
depending on the total tonnage acceptable to FWS.
- The applicability and savings of utilizing dry clean measures instead
of using water hoses to wash wastes into the sewer will be determined
when the plant is in operation in September.
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