Going green proves profitable for San Miguel and Coca-Cola

MANILA, Philippines - Going green is in. And this has proved to be also profitable for two of the country’s leading beer and beverage manufacturers, which have been implementing pro-environment programs in their respective plants in Cebu.

About four or five years ago, San Miguel Brewery Inc.’s Mandaue Supply Center decided to improve its engineering operations to be able to recover carbon dioxide (CO2) coming out from their boilers. The recovered CO2 was eventually used in beer carbonation at the last stage of the beer brewing process.

Nolan Rey Pancho, engineering manager of the SMBI-Mandaue Brewery, said they used to even buy CO2 from another company for lack of supply.  However, today, after the company invested around P6 to P8 million to put up additional CO2 reservoir and improved equipment for CO2 recovery, they even earn P30 million a year for selling around 2, 000 tons of CO2 they recover.

Pancho said they recover 85 to 90 percent or 735, 000 kilograms of CO2 per month, and that the surplus CO2 reaches an average of 260,000 kilograms.

According to Pancho, the company also increased the frequency of maintenance activities of the boilers in order to ensure cleaner emissions.

“Through this innovation, we are able to reduce if not eliminate the disposal of excess CO2 to the atmosphere,” Pancho pointed out.

SMBI-Mandaue Brewery also recovers methane, a by-product of its water treatment plant, and reuses it as boiler fire, replacing bunker fuel.

The plant now recovers around 40,000 cubic meters of methane from its water treatment facility, which enables the company to save P500,000 per month or P6 million a year.

SMBI-Mandaue Supply Center further implements reduction of light and air conditioning use, replacement of incandescent bulbs with energy-saving bulbs, rationalization of operations schedule to maximize usage of utilities, and optimized operation of ammonia compressors, which contributes 40 percent of the plant’s energy consumption.

Meanwhile, the Coca-Cola Cebu Plant has been engaged in water minimization projects, as the multi-national company, Coca-Cola Bottlers Inc., aims to “safely return to nature” a certain amount of water it uses for its production of beverages.

Raul Raymond Kapuno Jr., Coca-Cola’s safety and environment manager for Visayas, said the initiatives on water minimization are implemented usually in the production line while water recycling is implemented for domestic use.

In 2008, Kapuno said that the water usage ratio (WUR) in the manufacturing of Coca-Cola beverages in the Cebu plant was at four liters per liter of beverage produced, which is equivalent to 554,323 cubic meters of water used.

But for the first seven months of this year, Kapuno said Coca-Cola Cebu Plant reduced its WUR to 3.87 liters per liter of beverage produced, which is equivalent to 507,804 cubic meters of water consumed.

As a result of the reduced WUR, Kapuno said Coca-Cola Cebu Plant managed to save 46,519 cubic meters of water, or P1,209,494.

By the end of this year, Coca-Cola Cebu Plant aims to reduce its WUR further to 2.99 liters per liter of beverage produced; and to 1.8 liters per liter of beverage produced by the end of 2010, according to Kapuno.

The 1.8 WUR is said to be the world-class standard for all Coca-Cola companies across the globe.

Other water-saving means that the company targets to implement soon are the usage of waterless urinals and self-closing faucet; recirculation of condensate water and cooling water; backwash recovery system; and recovery of ultra-filter backwash, among others.

“As of August 2009, 59 percent (of these programs) are implemented. We estimate water savings of 115,450 cubic meters per year if all of the initiatives are implemented,” Kapuno noted.

SMBI-Mandaue Brewery also recovers a certain amount of water it uses for its production of beer. Some of SMBI-Mandaue Brewery’s recovered water is reused for equipment cleaning, the pasteurizer, and the cooling tower; while some effluent water is also used for the maintenance of the facility’s landscape and comfort rooms.

SMBI-Mandaue Brewery is located in a 27-hectare complex.

“We believe that as the environment thrives, business thrives,” Pancho said. “So, the cost of investing to these programs does not really matter… It’s nothing compared to the help we give or our contribution to the preservation and protection of our environment. It’s what really matters. Also, we were able to save a lot from these environment programs.”