A groundbreaking ceremony on July 13 kicked off construction of a quadgeneration production plant at Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages in Elmsford. The quadgeneration facility, due to be completed by the end of the year, is designed to help make Liberty’s sprawling operation at 115 Fairview Park Drive more environmentally friendly and efficient.
Liberty has three manufacturing plants and lists nine distribution sites. It serves restaurants, supermarkets and retailers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It is headquartered in Philadelphia.
Robert Rodriguez; Fran McGorry Liberty Coca-Cola co-owner; Sen. Andrea Stewarts-Cousins; Julie Tighe, president of NY League of Conservation Voters; Rocky the Coca-Cola Bear.
A typical quadgeneration plant has electric generators that burn natural gas. Principal byproducts of burning natural gas are water vapor and carbon dioxide. Since carbon dioxide (CO2) is used to put the fizz is soda, the quadgeneration equipment captures and cleans the CO2 for use in the soda, avoiding having to truck in CO2 from outside sources.
Electricity from the generators in the quadgeneration facility is used to power operations at the plant, thus easing the burden on the local electric grid. The quadgeneration equipment also is used to provide heating and cooling.
Coca-Cola Hellenic, one of the world”™s largest bottlers of products of The Coca-Cola Company, has operations in 28 countries in Europe and Africa and has been using quadgeneration since a pilot plant was built in 2008.
Coca-Cola Hellenic has found that quadgeneration can reduce a plant’s carbon emissions by about 80% while providing excess electricity to the national electric grids. It has been able to sell for medical use high-quality carbon dioxide that it is not using to make soda.
Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages estimates that several hundred truck trips to bring CO2 to Elmsford will be eliminated once the quadgeneration plant is operational.
“The quadgeneration plant will be a game changer for the entire manufacturing and bottling industry.” Paul Mulligan, Liberty’s co-owner said. “Not only do we serve our customers with the beverages that you all know and love, but we do it in a way that has made us an industry leader, especially when it comes to the environment and sustainability.”
Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, who attended the groundbreaking, said, “If every company were like Liberty Coca-Cola, we would not have to worry about saving the planet. Liberty is making strides towards sustainability and now other companies will follow.”
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, State Sen. Pete Harckham and New York Secretary of State Robert Rodriquez also were among those attending.
Liberty has partnered with Clarke Energy USA, Inc. a KOHLER Company, to develop the plant. Clarke Energy created the technology and has installed it at facilities in other countries.
Construction of the quadgeneration plant dovetails with other sustainability efforts by Liberty, including replacing plastic ring holders on packages with fiber-based packaging, which eliminates the use of 75,000 pounds of plastic per year and using 100% food-grade recycled plastic for bottles.
