Agri
Digital technologies help food &
beverage companies
Lower their water costs
AQUAVISTA™ unleashes all the benefits of a connected installation through available digital solutions at any given time.
An estimated 14 percent more water will be required for agriculture and food production by 2030.
A
frica has the fastest growing population in the world.
In just 10 years, we will need to feed an additional
470 million people. And yet a range of factors, from
land degradation and reduced yield growth of major food
crops to a changing climate, are making food more costly
to produce. Yet there is at least one area where agri-food
industries can today make large inroads in reducing their
food production costs: the role of water.
An estimated 14 percent more
water will be required for agri-
culture and food production
by 2030. With water scarcity
becoming a more regular issue
across large parts of Africa,
avoiding a water crisis in the near
future requires a smarter, holistic
approach to water management
across the value adding chain of
food production.
“Optimising the costs of water
in food production will be
critical in ensuring overall costs
of producing food remain in
line with what consumers can
afford,” explains Veolia Water
Technologies’ Chris Braybrooke.
46
Agri-food optimising
assets
For agri-food companies, the
primary water objectives are
to ensure safe, hygienic water
quality and to reduce consump-
tion, wastewater and energy
footprint. The efficiency, cost-
effectiveness and reliability of
water and wastewater treatment
facilities therefore play a vital role
in overall business performance.
“As companies look to improve
their
financial
performance
and get more from their assets,
optimal utilisation and manage-
ment of their existing assets are
becoming obvious economic
SABI | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019
priorities,” Braybrooke says.
They are achieving this by reaping
the rewards digital technologies
have brought to the plant floor:
historical, real time and predictive
process data; intelligent condi-
tion monitoring; remote plant
visibility; and more automated
supply chain management.
Veolia’s
AQUAVISTA™
suite brings these capabili-
ties to water treatment in the
food and beverage industry.
“AQUAVISTA™ is a complete
and customisable suite of digital
services that can help monitor,
manage and optimise water
treatment processes,” Braybrooke
explains. “Equally suited to both
existing and new water treat-
ment facilities, AQUAVISTA™
aggregates and enriches plant
data through a variety of applica-
tions and algorithms to provide
a greater, detailed layer of plant
intelligence for managers, opera-
tions and maintenance teams.”
In doing so, it is enabling compa-
nies to:
f f optimise energy and
chemical consumption
f f improve operating
efficiency and stability
f f minimise maintenance and
prevent costly downtime
f f reduce non-compliance
incidents and lower
environmental impact
f f enhance
equipment monitoring
f f gain a complete view of
operating status, historically
and in real time
“It is clear that to ensure water
security for the food and beverage
industry in the future, we need
to look past conventional fresh
water sources to supply our water
needs,” Braybrooke concludes.
“Instead, by optimising the
internal water cycle of food
production, we will be able to
ensure we can meet the needs
of food producers as we look
towards 2030 and beyond.”