Frito-Lay Turkey: Eco-friendly and energy-efficient efforts cut costs

The snack titan has used recycled potato chip waste to fertilize all of it’s 2013 potato crop in Turkey and cut costs at its wastewater treatment plant again with compressed air technologies from Atlas Copco, installed in 2010.

From waste to land…​

Frito-Lay Turkey developed a pelletized fertilizer from production waste called ‘Naturalis’ – which costs around 10-15% less than chemical equivalents.

The Naturalis fertilizer has so far only been used in Turkey, but Frito-Lay is looking to broaden this with discussions starting in Belgium.

“Naturalis is one of the agro sustainability initiatives started and implemented by PepsiCo Turkey. It’s an innovative and exciting project, which contributes to PepsiCo Turkey’s commitment to reducing our carbon footprint and water usage in potato fields,”​ said Cem Ozyurt, snacks agro manager for PepsiCo Turkey.

Enery savings at wastewater level​

Atlas Copco claims that its compressed air blower technologies save around 30% energy compared to traditional ‘roots’ type lobe blowers.

This would typically translate to around €131,400 in savings per year, explained  Ben Van Reybroeck, project manager for pnrematic conveying at Atlas Copco Airpower.

“It is important for snack manufacturers to increase their bottom line through reduction of operational costs – 60-70% of the operational cost of the wastewater treatment plant is in the electricity cost of the aeration blowers,”​ Van Reybroeck told BakeryandSnacks.com.

Considering cost reductions made possible with energy-efficient aeration blowers, all snack makers should consider investing in wastewater treatment enhancements, he said.

“Also, governmental regulations are becoming more stringent even in developing countries, preventing untreated waste water being disposed in rivers and canals,”​ he added.

Cutting costs and giving potential…​

Van Reybroeck said wastewater from food and drink production contains a lot of bio-degradable components which can easily be removed by aeration. “Disposing such volumes in the public waste water system would be too costly,”​ he said.

Treating this water also opens up opportunities for companies to re-use it as ‘grey’ water, he added, for less critical applications like cleaning.