Rendering equipment choices

In a recent study, Meat and Livestock Australia investigated the cost of rendering at several plants throughout Australia. The investigations revealed that the cost of producing one tonne of rendered product ranged between $130 and $253.

Meat Technology update has reported the rendering product contributes approximately 3-7% of the revenue from cattle and sheep processing. While there is some fluctuation, there has been little change over the last 15 years.

“As you can see, there is a massive variation in the per tonne cost and we believe that much of this can be associated with selection of the correct screening equipment,” said Tony Webber, Managing Director, iBulk Solutions Pty Ltd.

iBulk is a major supplier of screening equipment to the industry and Webber offers some insight into the importance of selecting the correct equipment for processing meat and bones meals (MBM).

“The obvious choice is Rotex. Its horizontal gyratory screening motion rapidly distributes the meat meal over the entire screen surface and conveys it without vertical vibration or hop,” explained Webber. “This motion causes the hair and fluff to ball up and ride on top of the meal for easy removal by aspiration and/or discharge with other rejects.”

Tony went on to explain that the importance is retention time on the screen surface, which is increased when using the longer rectangular design of the Rotex compared to the use of circular screeners.

“Consider a round screen that has a nominal diameter of 1.8 m; that means the average distance of travel from the inlet of the screen to the outlet can be as little as 915 mm. In the case of a similarly sized Rotex machine, the transit distance from inlet to outlet is 3000 mm and this increases the yield from the process.”

Yield is the amount of material separated out as product through screening; and by increasing screening accuracy, Rotex helps users maximise the recovery of on-size product and therefore increased profit results.

The Rotex screener features a unique bouncing ball system under the screen surface that helps prevent plugging and grease build-up. This freedom from screen blinding permits the use of smaller openings on the Rotex screens and thus more accurately sized meat meal product passing through the screen mesh.