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Snack Food Company to Minimize Water Consumption

MnTAP internship results in recycled water systems replacing fresh water consumption.

Madison Best, Bioproducts & Biosystems Engineering major at the University of Minnesota.
Madison Best, Bioproducts & Biosystems Engineering major at the University of Minnesota.

Old Dutch Foods–a snack food manufacturing company–has experienced an increase in water usage and operational costs at its Minnesota facilities these last several years and sought an MnTAP intern to identify and quantify the water intensive steps in production and opportunities for reduction or reuse. MnTAP–an outreach program at the University of Minnesota that places highly qualified students in facilities for three months to focus on pollution prevention and energy efficiency solutions–placed Madison Best, a Bioproducts & Biosystems Engineering major at the company.

Old Dutch Foods consumes approximately 35 million gallons of water per year at its Roseville, Minn. location and 20 million gallons of water at its St. Anthony, Minn. location. Best offered the following suggestions:

Add a valve on the washer pump to turn off the water between potato unloading shifts, eliminating unnecessary water use. This would save 460,000 gallons of water and $1,800 annually.

Replace the 9 potato washer nozzles with a higher flow rate (2.3 gpm) than the others (1.5 gpm) for nozzles with lower capacity. This would result in 600,000 gallons of water being saved every year along with $2,000.

Install variable frequency drive on the washer pump to lower the motor speed by 35%, reducing pump water use by 950,000 gallons and electricity use by 37,000 kWh annually, and save $5,000 yearly.

Recycle water to peeler by replacing the fresh water bar used to spray potatoes with a new spray bar supplied with recycled water from the recovery station. This would allow 890,000 gallons to be conserved, saving $3,600 annually.

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