ave found a way to power their factory in Hellendoorn, the Netherlands, using the factory's waste products.The Chunkinator is a biodigester which converts waste products, for example, milk, cream, syrups and fruit, into energy. It is an anaerobic flotation reactor which works by micro-organisms breaking down the waste and turning them into biogas. At the same time waste water is fed into the tank and is insulated at the correct temperature for ice-cream creation, which reduces the need for natural gas to heat the plant.
The biodigester was tested for a year and underwent 18 months of trial runs. In the past year the machine has powered over 7.5 million litres of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and became fully operational in June.
The Chunkinator head engineer Arjan Vloon said, "Our goal is to reduce waste first and then ask ourselves how best to use the waste we do produce in a productive manner. The biodigester gives Ben & Jerry's the opportunity to take what had been a waste product and turn it into a benefit for our business - producing our own energy."
Ben & Jerry's has many initiatives to support the community and our planet and this machine is part of their ongoing commitment to make ice cream in the nicest way possible. This machine has enabled the factory to utilise all of the wastewater they produce and about half of the litres of waste ice cream they produce.
