No-water plant in Jalisco.REFORMA
The giant of the food industry, Switzerland-based Nestlé, has officially opened its first so-called “zero-water” factory in the world.
Located in Lagos de Moreno, in northeastern Jalisco, the plant recycles water from dairy operations, reducing the demand for water from external sources by an amount equal to what 6,400 people would use each day, the company says.
The process takes fresh cow’s milk, which is about 88% water, and heats it at low pressure to remove some of that water content. The resulting steam is condensed and treated and used to clean the evaporating machines themselves.
Then the same water is collected, purified and recycled a second time, and can be used for irrigation or cleaning. Taking the water from the milk in this fashion eliminates the need to use groundwater, and represents an estimated daily saving of 1.6 million liters, according to Nestlés calculations.
The company intends to introduce the process into other factories in other parts of the world.
The US $200-million Lagos de Moreno factory represents one component of Nestle’s plans to invest $1 billion in Mexico by 2018. It currently operates four factories employing 2,000 people directly and another 10,000 indirectly. Production amounts to 200,000 tonnes annually of powdered milk, cream, cereals and ice cream.
In terms of revenues Nestlé is the largest food company in the world.
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