Local food company Del Monte Philippines Inc. is turning pineapple wastewater into renewable energy source in its Cagayan de Oro canning plant through a partnership with Global Water Engineering (GWE).
GWE has installed a wastewater treatment plant that has ‘achieved’ 93% organic pollution (COD) removal in its anaerobic reactors and is producing enough methane-rich biogas enough to power two 1.4 MW generating electrical power generator units (gensets).
Waste heat from the gensets is also used to heat up boiler feed water – that further reduce the fossil fuel use in the Del Monte factory.
“The DMPI plant has substantially exceeded even the high environmental goals set by the company for the treating more than 13,000 cubic meters a day of wastewater, or nearly five million cubic meters a year,” he said.
“This is remarkable in an operation so large and a compliment to the foresight of DMPI. In terms of the positive environmental impact and the virtually free electricity gains going straight to the bottom line, this is an exemplary project for food, beverage and agribusiness processors worldwide,” he added.
The GWE official said that the DMPI plant has “substantially better than the guaranteed levels of the project” and that the Philippine subsidiary of Del Monte Pacific Ltd will make a return investment within two to five years.
DMPI accounts for about 10% of the world’s annual production of pineapple products, data from the GWE said.