This candy factory is on quite the sugar kick.
One of Nestle’s factories in the United Kingdom is receiving a considerable portion of its electricity from leftover chocolate, as reports National Journal.
At the Rolo’s candy factory in Fawdon, U.K., Nestle is combining expired or imperfect chocolate with other unused ingredients like starch and sugar.
These candy components are melted down and stored in an airtight tank, where overtime the mixture expels methane and carbon dioxide gases.
The gases then fuel an engine which powers 8 percent of the total electricity used by the factory.
Though the unusual power system has been churning chocolate into fuel for upwards of a year, Nestle had kept quiet about it until last week.
The new electricity source, which was designed by British bio-energy technology company Clearfleau, is not only clever but also allows Nestle to reduce its factory’s pollution and save about $157,000 in electricity costs annually.
That’s one sweet deal.
“Clearfleau was delighted to be selected by Nestle to deliver this important plant and we very much appreciate their collaborative approach to the delivery of this project,” explained Clearfleau Chief Executive Craig Chapman in a statement. “For Nestle, what was previously a processing overhead is now a valuable financial and environmental asset.”
One of Clearfleau’s founding directors Richard Gueterbock surmised that Nestle is likely starting a trend in environmentally-friendly power generation.
“This just makes sense,” said Gueterbock. “You’re taking something that would otherwise be thrown away and creating renewable energy. Factories of the future will be looking to combine many different ways of power generation, and this could be one of them.”
