Natural mineral water

To preserve the quality of the bottled water, the bottling process uses natural mineral water to rinse the bottles and installations. Some of the raw water is recovered as service water for the utilities (boilers, cooling towers), while the surplus is sent to the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).

With a view to recovering the lost surplus, the Chancet site, nestling in the heart of the Auvergne volcanoes, decided to install a treatment system designed to recycle the water, which can then be reused for other purposes (process water).
 

To meet these challenges, the BWT teams proposed that Volvic equip the Nature plant with a water disinfection solution using ozone, which is produced from oxygen in the ambient air, as already deployed at other group sites. Encouraged by the success of these previous deployments and BWT's expertise, Volvic decided to implement an ozonizer, which is quick to deploy.

The principle of the installation is based on a recirculation loop that ensures continuous water ozonation, while a UV treatment eliminates any traces of ozone, producing clear water that is totally free of chemical taste or residues.

The treated water is used to supply process water to both plants, in particular the network at the Fruit plant, for reuse in CIP (Cleaning In Place), sterilisation and rinsing between the various beverage recipes
 

Supported by the BWT teams from the design stage through to commissioning and operation of the ozonizer, the company has had its new installation since 2018. "We spent six months engineering the project, costing it and calibrating the solution so that we could equip ourselves with an ozonation system that met our expectations in terms of reducing water consumption and recycling", explains Sébastien M., Process Manager.

These objectives have also been achieved thanks to the system's reliability: in three years of round-the-clock operation, there has been no production stoppage, and simple annual maintenance is enough to keep the installation in perfect operating condition.

"In total, 380 million litres of water have been saved between 2017 and 2020, while production volumes have remained stable. The BWT installation is one of a number of investments that have enabled us to achieve this result", emphasises Sébastien M., who also sees the new installation as offering maintenance flexibility and optimum safety, since the ozonizer requires no handling of chemicals. He concludes: "This project is part of a long-term environmental approach that we intend to support as part of our overall strategy to preserve water resources”.