Commercial feasability of a low temperature rendering and drying technology

Summary

​The project aim was to evaluate the commercial feasibility of a novel low temperature rendering and drying technology. Rendering is an integral part of beef processing for many meat processors, with an estimated 75% of all rendering in Australia being associated with processing operations.

Rendering accounts for 35-40% of energy use in meat processing and is a major greenhouse gas source, through combustionof fuel for drying. In an environment in which greenhouse gases attract a penalty and in which energy supplies are rising sharply in price, it is essential to minimise energy usage in rendering if costs of processing are to be contained.

Australian Dehydration Technologies (ADT) developed a chemical method for rendering, which laboratory and small scale trials revealed to have potential for reducing energy usage in producing dried meat and bone meal from abattoir waste streams. To minimise the cost of establishing a pilot plant a mothballed rendering plant was to be retrofitted with the necessary equipment. Energy and mass balances were to be performed around the plant and its key component processes in order to quantify the actual realisable savings. Solar heating and low grade recovered heat was to be used to preheat the drying air, as savings could arise from its application in the low temperature drier. The finished dried rendered material was to be evaluated against conventionally rendered material in normal applications such as fodder and fertiliser.

This project was terminated by the partner company, ADT Rendering Pty Ltd.