The Florida Ice & Farm Company (FIFCO) is reducing its environmental footprint with a new Global Water & Energy (GWE) wastewater treatment plant.
The a Costa Rican food and beverages company headquartered in the province of Heredia, has over 2,000 brands of beverages sold in 15 countries, producing more than 1.5 million hectoliters per year, including beer, spirits, juices, carbonated drinks, energy drinks, wine and dairy drinks, expects to double this by 2025.
FIFCO’s installation of a new GWE wastewater treatment plant adds further sustainability credentials to a company that is already leading the way in this field.
FIFCO Costa Rica was the first Latin American company to receive the certification “Zero Waste to Landfill”.
To treat the wastewater from the brewing, FIFCO collaborated with Global Water & Energy, a member of Global Water Engineering Group of Companies, to install a wastewater treatment plant at its facility in Heredia, Costa Rica. The process not only treats the wastewater efficiently but also converts organic matter into biogas, which can later be utilized to reduce the fossil fuel dependency of the company.
The system is designed to treat nearly 10,000 kg of organic load per day (kg COD/d), with treatment efficiencies of approximately 95%.
The plant adds to GWE’s more than 400 wastewater treatment plants, waste-to-energy and biogas utilization solutions installed globally, from which almost 140 were delivered to breweries.
In Costa Rica, FIFCO is best known for its brands such as Imperial and Bavaria brewed by the “Cervecería Costa Rica”. In October 2012 FIFCO purchased North American Breweries (NAB). Through its Cervecería subsidiary NAB sells Genesee and Labatt beer in the United States. Under contract FIFCO brews locally the Heineken beer brand.
