Clean technology projects

Examples of Clean Technology MSc student projects in industry

Biscuits

Bakery

The student was asked to reduce waste on site. Examples of her recommendation included:

  • Changes to the shape of production lines to avoid tight bends and hence pies flying off the conveyor belt.
  • Reducing the size of spray nozzles to avoid over spray on sugar coated buns.
  • Energy savings through improvement in oven logistics.
Crisps

Potato crisp manufacturer

  • Effluent plant improvement.
  • Segregation and resale of grey sludge saved £20,000 in disposal costs and generated £78,000 revenue.
  • Better oil management during frying saved £26,000 in skimming fat from effluent.
Silica

Silica processor

  • Water/effluent Disposal costs of £200,000 pa.
  • Water minimisation project.
  • Found hoses left on all day.
  • 10 tonnes water were used at weekend, (why!).
  • Metering and trigger hoses saved £13,000 with pay back on capital equipment costs of 8 months.
Sweets

Sweets manufacturer

  • Steam reduction and metering programme carried out.
  • Saved £23,000 on Energy, 2,000 tonnes water, 400 tonnes CO2.
Cheese

Processed cheese maker

  • Current contractor was charging for emptying empty skips and charging other customers less.
  • Recycling schemes set up for paper, cardboard, batteries, toner cartridges, (saved £2,000).
  • Composter to be set up for food waste thus saving £14,000 pa.
Wallpaper

Vinyl wall coverings manufacturer

  • Use of solvents a big issues- no management plan, (required).
  • Reclamation company sending back poor quality product.
  • On site reclamation could save £114,000.
  • Diversion of 60 tones of solvent from incineration and disposal of 16,000 used rags though on site cleaning.
  • Return of hazardous waste containers to suppliers.
Bathroom pod

Manufacturer of ready to use bathroom pods

  • Segregation of waste and use of baler for plastic packaging which is then recycled.
  • Training of workforce.
  • Found existing scrap man was illegal.
  • Saved 20% of annual waste disposal cost.
Printed circuit board

Printed circuit board manufacturer

  • Currently spend £200,000 pa on water/effluent disposal.
  • Looked at water minimisation and reuse on one product line, found savings of £3,000- if rolled out to other lines £30,000 pa.
  • Potential annual savings on 260,000 cubic metres on water and thus effluent disposal.
Juice

Fruit juice processor

  • Water minimisation study saved 15% of water usage, (and diverted 33,00 cubic meters of water from sewer).
  • Highlighted need to ensure appropriate water for the each task, (don't need membrane filtered water for all tasks).
  • Reuse of clean water for cleaning floors.
  • Use of some effluent for golf course irrigation.
  • Potential savings of 40% on water/effluent disposal.
Wallpaper

Wallpaper Manufacturer

  • Most waste is dry paper but with high PVC content so cannot be recycled.
  • Changed cutting processes to reduce waste at source.
  • Resale of seconds.
  • Recycling of packaging.
  • Diverted 173 tonnes waste from landfill (25%).
  • Saved £100,000.

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