Energy savings filter through for oil manufacturer

With an annual electricity bill of $150,000, cold-pressed oil manufacturer Proteco Gold was looking for ways to reduce its energy consumption by making its production process more efficient.

Identifying its filtration systems as a potential source for savings, the Kingaroy-based company applied for - and was granted - a $51,400 grant from the Australian Government’s Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program. With the grant, Proteco Gold has upgraded its filtration technology to an energy-saving Pressure Leaf Filter system, which will reduce its carbon emissions intensity by an estimated 13.4%.

The Pressure Leaf Filter system.

“This modern equipment is helping reduce our costs of production,” said Josh Gadischke, Director of Proteco Gold. “Our business is a growing business, and we’re employing more people than we were 12 months ago. And, thanks to this initiative, our energy use per tonne of production is decreasing.”

Proteco Gold’s cold-pressing process involves extracting oil from nuts and seeds and then filtering the oils to ensure the liquid is free of sediment. The new filtration system uses pumps to create pressure and force cold-pressed oil through mesh filtration ‘leaves’. This requires less energy than the old process, which relied on centrifugal force and motors to spin drums at high speed to separate solids from the cold-pressed oil.

Besides using less energy, the Pressure Leaf Filter system has other benefits. As it is fully enclosed, the oil is less exposed to the atmosphere, producing a better-quality product. The new system can also be automated to free up workers for other tasks and it has no moving parts, reducing the need for maintenance and enhancing worker safety.

“This project ticks a number of important boxes for us because it allows us to automate processes and use less energy and fewer man hours,” Gadischke said. “Without the grant, it would have been hard to justify this level of capital expenditure.”