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General Mills Wins Governor's Award

Information provided by the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance

General Mills, Inc., (GMI) Chanhassen, was a winner at the 12th Annual Governor's Award Ceremony this past October for being a model in environmental stewardship.

The GMI Chanhassen facility set objectives to reduce or eliminate the chemical treatment of cooling tower water in the plant refrigeration system to reduce chemical emissions to the environment and improve worker safety through reduction of hazardous materials handling. These objectives led them to the VRTX system, manufactured by VORTEX Technologies. The VRTX is a cooling water system that is able to control scale, corrosion, and biological activities in cooling water without the use of chemicals and has the ability to run at elevated levels reducing makeup water usage and blowdown.

Installation of the VRTX system resulted in the elimination of toxic and hazardous treatment chemicals in the refrigeration cooling tower systems, reduction in water and energy usage, and improved work environment for employees.