SPECIAL FEATURE: IN PIPELINE CREATING CLEAN
By Peter Thomson, business and engineering manager at Wiley
New Zealand’s meat
industry is one of the
cleanest in the world.
Having always been
a leader in terms of
being environmentally
conscious. In recent years
the industry has been making
continuous efforts towards carbon
neutrality.
With a strong emphasis on
sustainability in industry and recent
related media coverage, growing
environmental concerns and social
pressure, the New Zealand red
meat industry will need to seek
methods of sustainability across
all areas of processing to retain
market position. This begins on the
processing floor, from LED lights,
hot / cool room usage, processing
equipment and flow efficiencies
to energy conservation and
generation options including solar,
batteries for storage and energy
capture and redistribution, with
covered anaerobic lagoons (CAL’s)
for biogas capture and distribution.
The 2018 Beef + Lamb New
Zealand report highlighted that
New Zealand’s existing focus is
evident with emissions 30% below
1990 for the beef and sheep
industry (levels, impressive when
HOW DO WE KEEP THE RED
MEAT INDUSTRY, GREEN?
considering that the goal under the
Paris accord was an 11% reduction).
With these successes, and one of
the world’s most advanced meat
processing industries, what are
the opportunities for the NZ red
meat industry when it comes to
sustainability and keeping green?
Technology and Industry 4.0 will
shortly begin to play a large part
in the way facilities are operated.
Connected devices and the data
they create will bring countless
opportunities to increase output
and find efficiencies through
diverse areas. The simple win for
operators will be dramatic shift in
energy consumption leading to
savings in operational costs. From
sensored lights, only activated
on when there is movement in an
area, to staggered engagement of
cooling systems to eliminate peak
demand, and other autonomous
systems designed to eliminate
wasted energy from an operation,
these devices and systems will
monitor use to mitigate spikes and
align energy use with output and
revenue.
From the processing floor and i4.0
we move on to producing energy.
When considering the coupling of
batteries with renewable energy
generation, the opportunity
exists to significantly decrease
electrical consumption and cost for
manufacturers.
This general approach to ensure
economically viable adoption of
energy sustainability measures is to
follow three principles in order:
1. Audit, assess and minimise
current energy usage – eliminate
waste
2. Identify and engineer renewable
options that minimise current
costs (accessing peak shaving,
purchase energy from green
sources, adopt simple green
energy solutions like roof
mounted solar)
3. Adopt facility scale green energy
generation solutions including
batteries to allow for time shifting
of self-generated green energy
Preliminary calculations suggest
simple reduction in peak demand
could have the potential to save
manufacturers up to 30 per cent
on their monthly electricity costs
and with a low capital cost this is a
logical area to seek out.
Other types of energy storage
Peter Thomson
solutions that can assist in
managing peak demand and
reducing environmental impact,
include biogas that can be held
under a pond cover (covered
anaerobic lagoon) and thermal
energy that can be stored in the
forms of insulated hot water tanks
or even ice.
With innovation playing a key role
in moving the country beyond the
current plateau and competing on
the international stage, integrating
these strategies into business
plans will likely be more important
than delivering the next upgrade to
automated boning or refrigeration.
It is when an industry embraces
change that it can truly deliver
sustainability, both economically
and environmentally.
22 November 2019