KBL apply new technologies to conserve water
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday June 5, 2015 16:34
KBL Technical Director David Grant told the media during the plant tour in Gaborone this week that even though they do not use recycled water for their products (drinks, beers and mageu) they came up with strategic ways of conserving water.
One of KBL’s initiatives includes using the recycled water for cooling towers and utilities that do not affect products (tins and drinks) and use some of the water in its gardens, he said.
“We keep measures and make people aware of how to use water. We engage our people’s minds so that they can appreciate water and see the need to conserve it. We encourage them to change the way they do things. We have realised that knowledge and practices is vital for every person,” he explained. Grant also stated that they have acquired a technology development plan they will use to reduce water usage.
“The beer plant uses clear water where we measure it as hectolitre of water used against a hectolitre of beverages produced. We had also adopted the Site Water Efficiency and Enhancement Programme (SWEEP) initiative, which is an excellence benchmark in water and energy performance in the global beverage manufacturing industry. We had spent P10 million in this project to reduce water usage in 2014 alone with a total of 34 percent,” he said.
He pointed out that in the Sparkling Soft Drinks Plant Water Use, the usage ratio that is the litre of water used for a beer produced decreased by 16.4 percent from 2010 to 2014, saying that both the usage ratio and raw water movement had a positive trend.
Grant said they hope to reduce water usage with higher percentages in future. He further pointed out that KBL was rated amongst the best breweries in the world that are doing a good job in conserving water.
He also said KBL was engaged in water usage conservation programmes like rain water harvesting, flush water reuse, distilling machine water reuse, brewery competition on usages, both the usage ratio and raw water movement where they had a positive trend.
“We have also come up with a different approach. We have come up with daily and shift reports used to monitor and trend water usage by machine or area, pareto analysis is used to identify areas of opportunity, action plan develop to capture and benefit from the opportunity. We also have multidisciplinary teams in place in every departments at the plant like at the brewing, packaging and utilities where we have the Develop Systemic Solutions (DSS) for recurring problems,” Grant explained.
He said KBL targeted 49 percent reduction in the power and energy part by 2019 where they achieved 11 percent reduction in 2014, which was good comparing to other countries.
“We are number eight in the globe. We have the ability to perform the best in the world,” he said.Grant added that the power and water cuts had negatively affected them as they lose millions of Pula in unfinished products that they are forced to dispose due to this crisis.