Ecolab Helps Italian Meat Processor Save 3.7M Gallons of Water

Inalca SpA, a leading Italian meat processor, and producer of charcuterie and snacks, significantly reduced water and energy use at its plant in Rieti, Italy, by partnering with Nalco Water, an Ecolab company.

The partnership spanned several water management projects and resulted in annual savings of 3.7 million gallons (14 million liters) of water and more than $72,000 (€65,000).

“Our vision of sustainable development is constituted by our knowledge, activities and business processes that have the essential aim of analyzing, controlling and correlating the economic, environmental and social challenges that develop within our supply chain,” said Roberto Clerici, operation manager at Inalca SpA.

“Our commitment to environmental sustainability is based on reduction and optimization of energy and water consumption, biomass recycling, use of recycled paper and recyclable plastics, and waste reduction.”

Inalca’s Rieti plant, which produces canned meat products, utilizes the most modern technology available and has the capacity to process up to 40,000 tons of meat per year. The facility’s heating plant, which consists of three boilers fueled by methane gas, generates the steam necessary for production. The plant’s cogeneration system also uses methane gas to produce electrical energy and the heat from the exhaust fumes is used to produce steam and hot water.

“Inalca had several key business drivers for this project, with safety and food quality being the top priorities,” said Alberto Serafini, vice president and market leader, Europe South for Ecolab. “We were charged with implementing solutions to reduce site water and energy consumption, reduce total cost of operation and improve site process operations.”

Nalco Water partnered with Inalca on several projects at the Rieti plant:

• For improved water preparation, replacement of the demineralizer (DEMI) plant with a Nalco Water reverse osmosis plant to reduce chemical use and total cost of operation;
• To improve boiler asset reliability and reduce water and energy use, implementation of Nalco Water 3D TRASAR™ Boiler Technology;
• For improved water reuse, vacuum pumps cooling water reuse as makeup water for evaporative condensers;
• For improved cooling water reuse and recycling, installation of Stork® hydrostatic sterilizers and STOCK™ retorts sterilizers.

The projects at the Rieti plant were completed with zero accidents, and all sustainability and operational goals were met:

• Implementation of 3D TRASAR Boiler Technology resulted in a reduction in water use of 14,000 cubic meters and annual savings of more than $11,000 (€10,250).
• More than 2,400 gigajoules of gas were saved due to increased cycles of concentration within the boilers, saving more than $43,500 (€38,800) in annual gas costs.
• More than 121,000 pounds (55,000 kilograms) of commodity chemicals saved through pretreatment and process enhancements, saving more than $17,500 (€15,600) annually.

Read more: Business Wire

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Taxonomy

• Water Reuse & Recycling
• Water Footprint
• Business Strategy
• Water Footprint Research
• Integrated Water Management
• Reuse
• Water Management
• Consumption
• Meat Processing