Love water, hate waste
March 04th 2008 Maximising opportunities to reduce water waste has helped Unilever to significantly boost the performance of its manufacturing process at its Marmite factory in Burton upon Trent.Kate Davis from Envirowise reports on the company’s achievements so far and plans for the future
As with many food producers, water plays a fundamental role in Marmite’s manufacturing process and the company deals with large quantities on a daily basis.
In 2006,Marmite embarked on a large scale campaign to optimise water use and minimise effluent discharge. The factory has already achieved significant water savings as a result of upgrades to more efficient equipment and the implementation of Cleaning in Place (CIP) technology. As a result, the company has considerably reduced the volume of mains water used onsite by 40% since 2005.
Driven by the considerable improvements already achieved, Marmite has now turned its attention to effluent management. The opening of a brand new waste water treatment plant later on this year marks the latest and perhaps most significant step of the campaign that will transform the way in which the company manages effluent.
With the current treatment plant nearing the end of its working life, Marmite’s water project team have taken the opportunity to invest in the most efficient technology for its replacement. The first hurdle was to convince senior management that this would be a worthwhile investment. The team contacted Envirowise who advised them to take advantage of the unique tax relief offered by the Enhanced Capital Allowance scheme through the Water Technology List (WTL).
Managed by Defra and HM Revenue & Customs in partnership with Envirowise, the WTL provides a selection of water efficient products that meet published eligibility criteria.The web-based list, available at www.eca-water.gov.uk, is part of the Enhanced Capital Allowance (ECA) scheme for water saving technologies, enabling businesses to claim 100% of first year capital allowances on listed products.
In addition to the 13 product categories, currently the scheme also includes ‘efficient membrane filtration systems’. For this technology category the ECA is available on the complete treatment ‘system’providing it meets the published eligibility criteria set out on the WTL website. If successful the business making the investment will receive a ‘certificate of environmental benefit’ from Defra, which certifies the ‘system’ as qualifying for the ECA.
Marmite’s production process generates a high strength effluent.This is due to the product’s raw material,yeast from the brewery industry.Currently,much of the process effluent has been treated onsite by aerobic digestion in a bio-tower before being discharged to the sewer.However,some of the highest strength effluent cannot be dealt with onsite and therefore must be disposed of by an external contractor.
The new plant will allow Marmite to handle all process effluent onsite. Most crucially, the plant’s four phase system, which includes anaerobic and aerobic digestion plus the use of ultra filtration and reverse osmosis processes,will enable approximately 40% of effluent to be re-used in the factory, for example as top up water for the steam and cooling water systems. In addition, biogas can be used as a renewable energy source in the site’s boilers.
Martin Beckford, Project Leader at Unilever, Marmite’s parent company, comments: "The Enhanced Capital Allowance scheme highlights how businesses investing in water efficient technology can help to protect the environment while improving their financial performance and benefitting from accelerated tax relief when dealing with this significant type of investment.At Unilever we call this 'doing well by doing good.'"
We at Envirowise are pleased that Marmite has taken full advantage of the ECA scheme to allow these major changes to be implemented and would encourage all businesses to consider how the scheme could benefit them. More articles from Envirowise: | 
