Veos’ new water purification installation converts blood into drinkable water

Veos invests €2 million in a water purification installation that filters up to 150 cubic metres of animal blood per day into drinkable water. Thanks to this new purification installation, the company will use 40% less groundwater by reusing the filtered water in the production process. The investment fits in with Veos’ overall growth and sustainability objectives.

Investing in growth and sustainability

The growing demand for high-quality proteins necessitated the expansion of Veos’ production capacity. “We feel it is important to conduct our business implementing the most sustainable methods, hence our generous investments in solar panels and heat exchangers”, says Robert Slee, co-CEO at Veos. “However, our production process requires large quantities of water to clean the tanks in which the animal blood is stored. So far we’ve been using groundwater pumped up nearby. To strengthen our sustainable ambitions while maintaining groundwater levels, we started looking for an alternative to pump less water and still have enough to expand production.”

From blood into drinking water

Veos found that alternative in a new water purification installation that generates 150,000 additional litres of drinkable water per day sourced from blood. “In concrete terms, we thicken blood during the production process and then vacuum dry it at a later stage. This process releases water vapour from the blood, which is left to condense until it returns to its water state. This water is subsequently purified by the new water purification installation so that it can be reused in the production process. As a a result we use up to 40% less groundwater, the equivalent of 45,000,000 litres of water on an annual basis.”

Global but with local anchoring

With an annual turnover in the neighbourhood of €140 million per year, 12 production sites and 240 production installations, the company’s future is looking bright. “In the future we want to continue to grow, preferably from our HQ in Zwevezele, Belgium”, says Robert. “I live in Zwevezele with my family, the business has been here since 1974 and all our staff live nearby. We feel at home here and it makes us very happy to be able to expand sustainably this way. Incidentally, in the context of our current growth we are still looking to recruit a number of new hires.”