Reducing energy
Lion Nathan’s total energy usage unfortunately increased by 2.2% in FY10 while National Foods energy usage reduced by 3.5% per litre/kilogram of product.
For the second year Lion Nathan reported under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme (NGERS). However, due to the merger with National Foods, we also reported under our new corporate structure Lion Nathan National Foods. Information about Lion Nathan, National Foods and Lion Nathan National Foods can be found on the government website www.climatechange.gov.au/reporting
As planned Lion Nathan New Zealand’s overall energy consumption went up by 13% due to the operational requirements of commissioning The Pride facility while running the Khyber Pass Brewery concurrently. One of the key focuses for the New Zealand business throughout FY10 has been to increase energy efficiency and given the state of the art efficiencies built into the new facility, our carbon footprint is expected to be reduced significantly as we consolidate operations to The Pride.
Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) program
We continued to roll out the federal government’s EEO program at our manufacturing sites.
Thirteen National Foods’ sites have been audited, with ten audits now complete and three completed in early 2011.
Overall, our National Foods business has identified more than 200 opportunities, of which around 60 have already been implemented, 20 will be in the near future, and around 80 are currently being investigated. To date, the program has resulted in savings of around 90TJ of energy, equivalent to the energy used by roughly 1,500 Australian households.
The savings have come from installing variable speed drives on equipment, recovering energy previously lost and reusing it, turning off lights and equipment when not in use, rescheduling runs and adjusting temperature settings in certain areas.
For example at our Vitasoy site, high-efficiency burners have been installed on the two boilers, a shutdown procedure at the end of each week has been implemented and refrigeration set points have been altered over weekends.
At our Malanda site a number of savings, such as increasing the temperature and turning off lights in unused cool rooms, have been implemented at almost zero cost. Additionally, new air compressors to allow for more efficient use of compressed air and highly efficient High-Bay LED lamps in the blow-moulding area have significantly reduced energy usage.
At our Lytton site the recommendations implemented as a result of the audit have meant that we have been able to maintain previous years’ energy levels, despite increased production. Many of these focused on culture change and people, while others, such as the ongoing compressed air and steam trap audits and a shutdown/lock-up procedural checklist, have been invaluable in supporting the energy saving initiatives.
The Burnie plant in Tasmania, which has been steadily working on energy efficiency, recently saw the installation of a number of energy saving initiatives including condensate recovery on the process cheese line and PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) on the lights in both the maturing room and the drying tunnel.
Similarly the Smithfield site has built on existing energy savings to further reduce energy usage through the implementation of compressed air demand control, replacement of air pumps with more efficient electrically driven pumps and through fixing any remaining air leaks around the plant.
The Booval plant has also achieved significant energy savings recently through the shutting down of the box drier, the reduction of boiler pressure and through regular checks and repairs on the compressed air system onsite.
Tooheys Cogeneration Project
Last year, we reported that our Tooheys Brewery was well down the track in installing a natural gas-fired cogeneration project to generate electricity at its Lidcombe manufacturing plant in New South Wales. The equipment arrived on site in December 2009 but installation was delayed whilst getting the necessary development approval from the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Changes and Water. The project was fully implemented in August 2010 at a cost of $4.5m, of which $2.5m was co-funded by the NSW Government under the NSW Climate Change Fund. The new plant generates thermal heat for use in the beer-making process and reduces peak demand on the site by over 2MW. Savings are estimated to be approximately 15,000 MWh of grid electricity and 10,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year. An additional benefit is that the equipment will be able to provide 2MW of emergency power to the Tooheys site.
New and upgraded breweries
The new integrated manufacturing and warehousing facility, The Pride, built on a greenfields site in East Tamaki, has replaced the old Lion Brewery in Khyber Pass, Newmarket.
After the integration and commissioning is complete, we expect to reduce our environmental impact in all categories. Energy and water usage will be reduced thanks to improved technology in the brewing processes. The new technology and the kettle vapour recovery for energy re-use will improve air quality. The new brewery had agreed to reduce air aroma emissions by 95% as part of the Air Discharges Consent, but testing has demonstrated that we will achieve a 99% reduction.
Due to the large area of impervious surface on the site, Pride runs its rainwater off to several intermediate collection systems: the Rogamai ponds at back of site and two specially constructed areas – a pond at north eastern front of site and a rain garden across the front of the carparks. These systems reduce loading in the stormwater before it then drains into the city stormwater system.
Landfill costs rose temporarily as a result of the large amount of material removed from the old brewery, while the normally self-sufficient plant was forced to buy 653T of C02, although this figure is once again at zero.
Data for FY11 will be affected by the integration of CBC's products, starting with cider in January, followed by bottle production of RTDs, and finally the transfer of CBC's entire production capability between May and July. Further, as a fully integrated multi beverage site direct comparison of statistics to other breweries may prove challenging.
Capital expenditure of $4.6 million was approved for the installation and commissioning of new infrastructure at our Swan Brewery to avoid critical plant failure and improve safety, operational capability and product quality, and reduce environmental waste and emissions. Brewhouse extract losses will reduce from 3.8% to 1.8%, saving an estimated $200,000 a year. Combined maintenance and services savings are estimated at $100,000 a year.
The major upgrade of the brewhouse at Boag’s Brewery has resulted in extract waste reduction of 2%. The state-of-the art brewhouse at the historic Boag’s Brewery in Launceston was opened in December 2009. The project took 18 months to complete and is part of a $25 million expansion and upgrade of the site. The brewhouse balances the site’s heritage status with environmentally sustainable, state-of-the-art operations technology and has effectively doubled the brewery’s capacity from 50 million litres to 100 million litres annually.
All wineries looked for efficiencies to contribute to energy use reduction. Actions taken included strategies around cooling plants, better sizing of compressors and shutting off upper capacity in the off peak season.