Water is critical to food and beverage (F&B) production—but with rising costs and stricter regulations, efficient water management is a growing challenge. Torben Poulsen, Business Development Manager for Pumps and Drives at ABB Motion, explains how smarter pump controls can help F&B producers cut costs, optimise water use, and meet sustainability goals across every stage of water treatment.
The water-cost crisis
Water is a cornerstone of food and beverage production, used in everything from brewing and bottling to cleaning and cooling. However, rising demand, climate-driven scarcity, and tightening regulations have made water 30–50% more expensive in Europe over the past decade. Disposing of wastewater is equally costly due to higher discharge fees. For F&B producers, this means an urgent need to find smarter, more cost-effective ways to manage water.
Naturally, food manufacturers are looking at where they can make some savings. Cutting back on water might sound like an easy fix, but it’s a foundational part of the process in F&B manufacturing – for example, it takes up to 9 litres of water just to make one litre of beer.
The context
The water and wastewater treatment market for the F&B industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.9 percent from 2023 to 2030 to reach $78.35 billion by 2030. This growth stems from the need for customized water treatment solutions at different sites. For example, raw water often needs special treatment – not only to get the flavour right, but also to meet the necessary quality standards for producing these goods.
F&B facilities can source raw water directly from natural resources (like aquifers, rivers, or lakes) if they have the right in-house treatment facilities. But even then, some natural sources of water are cleaner than others. Aquifers help supply cleaner water and need the least treatment, while river or lake water needs intensive treatment to be safe for use in food.
The other option for F&B businesses is to rely on external suppliers for their already processed water. This will save some of the work and process. But manufacturers will likely still need to treat the water, to an extent, to make sure it meets the stringent quality requirements for food. Regardless of the water source, a consistent supply of high-quality water is very important. This is where intelligent pump control solutions come in.
Improving process control and efficiency with VSDs
Variable-Speed Drives (VSDs) are the key to efficient water treatment processes. They are essential for controlling the speed and power of motors used in equipment like pumps, blowers, and filters. By ensuring efficient water flow, VSDs optimize critical processes such as filtration, cleaning, and wastewater treatment.
Controlling pump speed with VSDs built for this purpose brings many benefits that go beyond energy savings. Pumps running on variable speed control adapt to real-time water demands. Breweries, for example, use these pumps to adjust water flow based on real-time demand during brewing, cleaning, and bottling processes. This helps prevent energy waste while minimising mechanical stress and prolonging equipment lifespan.
ABB’s water and wastewater VSDs also have safeguards like dry-run protection. This shuts off the pumps when low flow is detected, avoiding costly damage. With smart features like minimum and maximum speed controls, operators can fine-tune pump performance so that their processes become more efficient. Whether addressing urban needs or rural water supply challenges, controlled pumps allow for uninterrupted water treatment and help preserve the integrity of important water sources.
The key stages of water treatment
There are, of course, many steps in the water processing stage that can benefit from this level of process control, chief among them being coagulation and flocculation. Coagulation involves adding chemicals such as ferric chloride and aluminum sulfate to bind small, suspended particles in water. Effective mixing of these chemicals is essential for proper distribution of processed water. Using dosing pumps at this stage allows for thorough circulation and chemical dispersion. And intelligent control helps adjust pump speed to match water conditions. This reduces chemical waste and energy usage while improving water quality.
At the flocculation stage, slow and gentle mixing helps to form larger clumps of particles, known as flocs, which are easier to remove through filtration or sedimentation. Controlling the speed and intensity of mixers is important here, as slow, consistent agitation ensures effective floc formation without damaging the particles. The result is cleaner, safer process water that meets high-quality standards for industrial applications like in F&B.
After removing suspended solids through coagulation and flocculation, aeration is often the next major step. Aerators introduce oxygen into the water, which helps degrade certain contaminants and prepares the water for final clean-up stages like UV sterilisation, ion exchange, or activated charcoal filtration.
Surface aerators, which stir air into water from the surface, and subsurface blowers, which release air bubbles from below to oxygenate the water, consume the most energy in a water treatment facility. VSDs can turn these devices into highly efficient systems by modulating their performance, responding to sensors measuring water demand and oxygen levels. Using dissolved oxygen sensors as feedback to low-pressure blowers and compressors can reduce energy consumption while improving control over the aeration process.
Intelligent pump control for water distribution
Once treated, clean water needs to be distributed throughout the plant or facility. Here, booster pump systems allow for steady water flow and pressure. The Intelligent Pump Control (IPC) is particularly useful in running pumps efficiently in sequences. This set-up uses a backup pump that stays on standby in case the main pump stops working. The IPC allows operators to switch between pumps based on demand, reducing overall energy consumption and ensuring continuous water in all conditions.
In parallel operations, multiple pumps share the workload to handle large water flows or keep things running smoothly if one pump needs maintenance. By doing this, the system uses smaller pumps more efficiently, avoiding the energy waste caused by running a single oversized pump at low speeds.
Wastewater treatment in F&B facilities
Processing the effluent, which is loaded with organic and inorganic materials, and chemicals, is another opportunity for efficiency gains. Wastewater treatment technology helps remove contaminants through processes like screening, sedimentation, biological treatment, anaerobic digestion, and sometimes chemical neutralisation.
For many F&B manufacturers, managing wastewater is also about meeting strict environmental standards. Special permits are required to discharge treated water into public waterways or reuse it onsite. This makes the role of VSDs essential—not just for treatment quality but for cost-effective operations.
Sludge, a thick byproduct of sedimentation and flocculation, is one of the most challenging parts of wastewater treatment. Moving it between treatment stages requires careful handling to prevent clogs or equipment damage. Intelligent pump systems can adapt pump speeds to match the volume and consistency of the sludge. This flexibility prevents blockages, reduces energy use, and ensures smooth operation. In some cases, operators dewater this sludge using centrifuges. Here, variable-speed control allows these centrifuges to run only as long as needed, reducing wasted energy. Regenerative VSDs can also recover energy during the deceleration of centrifuges, further driving down operational costs.
The future of water management
Efficient water use and wastewater treatment not only helps to make the F&B industry more sustainable, it also helps reduce operational costs. Pump process control, at key stages in clean water and wastewater treatment cycles (intake, chemical treatment, and sludge handling) makes processes more consistent, and saves them time and money.
VSDs also give plants the opportunity to precisely control their water use and treatment processes. This saves equipment wear while maintaining food safety and environmental compliance.
By integrating advanced pump control into water systems, F&B producers gain a competitive edge in addressing the growing challenges of water management.
