Frito-Lay bets on future energy cuts

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that will clean the water used to process potato chips and corn products.

The waste produced by the filtering process will then be fed to a new anaerobic digester, which will produce methane gas to run the plant’s boiler.

The second stage of the process will be the installation at least 50 acres of solar concentrators behind the plant. Similar concentrators are now being installed at a plant in Modesto, California. The concentrators are parabolic mirrors about three feet off the ground that move with the sun and focus energy on a tube filled with water, much like a magnifying glass can focus the sun’s rays.

The water is heated to about 500 degrees and is run through a maze of pipes back to the plant, where it will power a steam generator.

The last portion of the net zero plant would be a biomass generator that provides additional fuel to run the plant’s boiler. However, company officials have not yet determined what type of material will be used as fuel.

Frito-Lay would not provide a cost estimate for the project at Casa Grande. The company’s projections show that installing the net zero technology will cost slightly more over the next 25 years than if they continued with the current programs. However, the estimates are fairly conservative and don’t factor in oil at $100 a barrel.

But Frito-Lay officials maintain that trying net zero provides a hedge for Frito-Lay, particularly if the most pessimistic predictions about climate change and the availability of water and petroleum hold true.

“If the price of these resources continue to rise, we will be very happy we made these investments,” said Rich Beck, senior vice-president of operations.