Manufacturing

The Chelsea sugar's new sugar purification process has reaped savings in labour, gas and water use and reduced discharges of wastewater, heat and air pollution.

The new process forces sugar liquor through granulated activated carbon in five 62 kilolitre pressurised stainless steel vessels, to remove impurities. It replaced a process that had remained almost unchanged for 120 years.

As a result, NZ Sugar had achieved 13% greenhosue gas emission reduction. The plant is repaying its $7 million cost in just 3.8 years.

Auckland Meat Processor's Otahuhu factory has implemented a new automated cleaning method to clean some of the plant's moving processing tables. It saved over $200,000 in the first financial year. And it is anticipated that it will return over $4.5 million in savings over a 10 year life cycle.

In addition to this, significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions were also achieved.

The Mt Maunganui-based facility has installed a dual-fuel boiler that has reduced natural gas usage by utilising waste products from their factory. Now they are burning all their waste vegetable oils and tallow. The new boiler reduces their CO2 emissions by 1,378 tonnes per year.

After installing a permanent magnetic stirrer in their gas-fired furnace, the aluminium extrusion and fabrication manufacturer, MCK Metals is saving 6.8 per cent in gas energy consumption.

The permanent magnetic stirrer not only reduces the melting time required, it also increases the amount of aluminium melted per hour.

In addition to the energy savings, the stirrer delivers other benefits: its maintenance free, easy to operate, and has a large circulation capacity. It also reduces wastage and improves product quality.