Translations

CHICORÉE LEROUX implements a process of biological purification: the willow plantation

4. Environment

Biodiversity and sustainable resource management

Sector Food-processing

Year 2013

Country France

Transmitter

Context

The Chicorée Leroux company, French specialist in chicory, plays an important role on its market, both in France and abroad. The company is established in the Nord-Pas de Calais region since 1858, and counts 180 employees today. The generations which followed one another ensure the long-term viability of the company thanks to an unfailing spirit of initiative coupled with a permanent concern for innovation.

From the “seed to the cup”, Chicorée Leroux favors its territorial rooting in the Nord-Pas de Calais region. In 1998, Chicorée Leroux was the 1st European company from the food-processing industry to invest in a unique system of ferti-irrigation: a system of water management through a willow plantation.

Objectives

To implement a “virtuous loop”: using the water which served during the final stage of production (cleaning) for a very much upstream function, the irrigation of plantations
To plant CO2-absorbing trees
To produce firewood to be given to an association for handicapped people

APPROACH

In 1999, Chicorée Leroux chose to implement a process of biological purification: the Willow Plantation. Indeed, the manufacturing process of chicory is as close to the plant as possible: it uses the dehydrated and roasted root, and only water and heat are involved in the process. To keep this closeness to the soil, Chicorée Leroux chose to treat its process water by a biological treatment involving plants.

Process water can be treated either in a waste water treatment plant, or by ferti-irrigation. Chicorée Leroux chose the latter solution. The technique consists in purifying waste water by the irrigation of a willow plantation. Willows have two advantages:

- a high capacity of absorption;

- a very rapid growth

Each year, 25,000 to 28,000 m3 of process water are purified by these plants. Process water is then collected in a series of ponds before coming to drip-feed 15 hectares of young willows. The loop is closed, we come from the ground and we go back to it.

Choosing this technique presents an economic advantage: the average cost of treatment over 10 years is 3.83 €/m3, against 6 €/m3 for treatment with a standard biological system.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

Savings made: 3.83 €/m3 of treated water against 6 €/m3 in a biological treatment unit
Tax benefit: allowance on pollution fees thanks to the recognition of this technique by the French Water Agency
Regional prize for Industrial Innovation