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FrieslandCampina saves water with whey
FrieslandCampina Gerkesklooster is reducing its ecological footprint by significantly saving water. It is doing this by no longer largely obtaining process water, which is needed in the factory, from outside, but by extracting it from the whey that the factory produces. This saves over 100 million litres of water annually and makes the location 70 percent self-sufficient for this raw material.
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During the production of cheese, whey is released. This is a by-product that largely consists of water and serves as a raw material for, among other things, children's and sports nutrition. Where this water used to be lost, it is now recovered in Gerkesklooster using a smart technique: reverse osmosis. In this process, the water is pressed through special membranes that only allow pure water to pass through. The result is clean water that is reused, for example for production processes and cleaning installations and milk tankers.
100 million liters no longer needed
The production locations in Gerkesklooster save more than 100 million liters of water annually. This means that the location is now 70% self-sufficient. The aim is to become completely self-sufficient in the future. The technology is being rolled out to other locations, including the production location in Lutjewinkel.
Project manager Jasper Faber is proud of the result: "Cheese is not only delicious, but also nutritious. However, its production requires a lot of water and energy. Our focus on sustainability motivates us to use these resources as efficiently as possible and to minimize the impact on the environment. In addition, we save costs and improve our competitive position. This is a win-win situation. The implementation was technically challenging, but thanks to the efforts of more than a hundred colleagues, we achieved this without stopping production. That is truly a team effort."