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Industrial Case Study: Lessons From Nestlé's Zero Water Facility Under pressure to avoid using Southern California's endangered groundwater supply, Nestlé has announced plans to convert a Modesto milk factory into a "zero water" facility capable of extracting water from the materials it manufactures and reusing it for industrial processes. By Peter Chawaga T he climbing costs and increased environmental pres- sures stemming from dwindling freshwater resources have industrial companies across the board looking for the key to reuse. There is no shortage of academic literature, new products, and corner-cutting methods that promise to stretch every drop. But sometimes it's best to just follow the leader. A Call To Action Nestlé announced in May that it would transform a milk factory in Modesto, CA into a "zero water" facility, one that draws nothing from groundwater sources and extracts from the raw materials it manufac- tures all of the water it needs to function. The announcement of the forthcoming change in Modesto came as part of sweeping California conservation efforts from the Swiss mul- tinational food and beverage company. All five of the water bottling plants and four food and pet care production facilities that it operates in the state will undergo water-reducing equipment and procedure upgrades. These will include process optimization, a focus on water reuse, and the deployment of new technologies. "We are focused on how to adapt our bottling and our manufacturing operations, and our supply chain, to make them more resilient and more resistant to drought conditions," José Lopez, Nestlé's Head of Operations, said in the official statement announc- ing the changes. The effort likely comes in response to scrutiny leveled at the company for its practice of bottling California's groundwater for sale under its Arrowhead and Pure Life brands. The California-based "Courage Campaign" is petitioning the state's Water Resources Control Board to put an end to all of Nestlé's bottling operations there. The online petition has garnered over 139,000 digital signatures. "While California is facing record drought conditions, it is uncon- scionable that Nestlé would continue to bottle the state's precious water, export it, and sell it for profit," the campaign pledge reads. Having heard the concerns over his company's practices during a drought that shows no signs of subsiding, Lopez acknowledged that it's time for his multi-billion dollar company to do more to conserve water, whatever the upgrade costs. "It doesn't make economic sense to do this, obviously," he told Bloomberg in May. "The drought this year is teaching us you have to think of ways to adapt. What seems today not fully advisable from an economic standpoint will become a necessity." Nestlé is approaching these extensive conservation efforts in dra- matic fashion. The company anticipates that implementing its zero water plan at the Modesto facility will cost $7 million. This will save nearly 63 MG per year, 71 percent of its absolute withdrawals in 2014. It expects to have fully executed the changes by the end of 2016. Realizing Change The zero water technology is already in place and living up to its name at a Nestlé milk factory in Jalisco, Mexico. 1 The achieve- ment there serves as a starting point for the changes being made in Modesto. "Technology we have already deployed successfully elsewhere in the world to help address the challenges of water scarcity will improve our water use efficiency, relieving pressure on California's water resources," Lopez said in the company's statement. The next step was to carefully scrutinize how things used to run in Modesto and identify room for improvement. "We began by updating our factory water map, which includes all water users for the facility," Nestlé told Water Innovations. "We then conducted a mini Kaizen event 2 involving our factory team and various subject matter experts to identify the top water users. Following this event, we prioritized projects aimed at finding solutions to reduce, reuse, and recycle water use in our operations." The Nestlé team found that reuse offered the best chance to achieve zero water. "The critical first step is to set the minimum baseline," the company said. "From there, water reuse becomes the focal point to further the transformation [to a zero water facility]. The approach we took was to first focus on water reductions to set the baseline for minimum consumption required for our process." Nestlé installed evaporation technologies in Modesto which allow the plant to reuse the waste left over from making Carnation condensed milk. "We looked at opportunities to optimize reuse water where possible, such as reusing or recycling milk water from the evaporator process that ultimately reduces overall water consumption," Nestlé said. Evaporator technologies are typically favored in produced water treat- ment, as the process isn't particularly sensitive to traces of oil. But they are also becoming popular in industrial plants looking to increase reuse. Water recovered from evaporator systems will meet virtually all dis- charge specifications and is ideal for reapplication in cooling processes. 44 wateronline.com n Water Innovations The efforts to transform the Nestlé bottling plants in California are estimated by the company to save over 55 MG per year.