Company

A fish processing unit, situated at the western coast area of Gujarat. Having capacity of 1050 T/ Month which includes various types of fish i.e 85 % Peeled fish & 15 % Headless, Head on, Whole, Gutted, Whole gutted fish etc. Though, the unit has pollution control system, owner of the unit had decided to participate in the Sectorial study of fish processing units.

Process

First fish is transferred to platform manually where preliminary wash is given and manually sorted out based on fish quality, size etc. Then the fish is kept with ice during pre- processing for 24 hours. Ice is added at regular intervals (around 6 to 7 times) in 24 hours. Also salt with 1-2 % concentration is added. Chlorinated wash is given after De-icing followed by Grading and Peeling. The Next steps is treatment with ice and shinning agent. At last after washing, grading & weighing the material is sent for Freezing. The product is stored in cold storage and exported as requirement though it. The raw materials for the Fish Processing unit contain Cuttle fish, Seer fish, Reef fish & Squid.

CP-Programme

After study of process in brief as per CP-methodology, CP team revealed following irregularities.

• High solid waste from de-heading, skinning sections.
• Use of running water pipe in processing hall.
• Poor maintenance of equipments.
• No recycling/reuse of water.

After this CP-Team decided Water consumption, Energy Utilization and Reuse of water as Audit Focus Area. After economical and technical feasibility analysis few options were suggested to industry and the results that we got are extraordinary and very useful for industry in current situation prevailing in the Global Market.

CP-Results

• Good House Keeping (GHK), a management tool initializes the CP- Exercise at a unit. 10-15 % of water consumption was simply reduced by increasing employee's awareness and by educating them. Similarly installation of sensors to turn off lights and equipments when not in use, was another GHK option applied to save energy.
  
  
• Reuse of treated water in the process areas was given first priority to reduce wastage of water. Reverse Osmosis plant of 2 lacs lit./day capacity has been installed at the cost of Rs.43,20,000/- to get the benefit of Rs.52,34,300/year. Also it has improved 1% yield saved 2.02 crore liter of fresh water every year.
  
  
• Earlier water used for washing was sent to the effluent treatment. It was found out during the exercise that, this wash water could be utilized in the preliminary washing of raw material or in the skinning operation. An investment of Rs. 76,300 (one time) has been made to implement this CP option. This has lead to reduction of 52.8 lakh liter of fresh water worth Rs. 73,920 per year and reduction in Common Effluent Treatment Cost by Rs. 52,800 (pay back period 7 months).
  
  
• Use of De-heading machine with motor for better yield instead of manual process was suggested to industry. The amount invested for the same is Rs. 3,25,100 (one time) which has given financial benefit of Rs.4,80,000 (per year) and yield improvement by 2%.
  
  
• Earlier Plastic trays were used for efficient cooling, as all know that the plastic is not that much effective for cooling purpose. It was decided to go for Stainless Steel (SS)/ Aluminum trays for better cooling. An amount of Rs. 16,00,000 (one time) was invested and earned Rs.10,70,000/per year and 50 % reduction in energy consumption is additional benefit to industry.
  
  
• Improvement in cooling system and vacuum arrangement has given financial benefit of Rs. 4,39,000/year at the investment of Rs.2, 72,260 for one time.
  
  
• Also some nominal changes like Spray Nozzles, Timers, Solenoid Valves, Filter conveyer (2 m. length), Vacuum Pump, Self Closing Doors with tight seals, suggested to the industry, which have been successfully implemented at the cost of Rs.4,21,900 investment and gained Rs. 4,31,084 per year (pay back period 1year).

Summary:- Economical benefits Investment : Rs.51,87,500(one time) Saving : Rs.77,01,134 / year Environmental benefits Reduction in Water Consumption - 1,48,85,450 lit/Annum. Reduction in Energy Consumption - 2,52,676 KWH/Annum. Reduction in quantity of Solid Waste.