Hook-gambrel steriliser labour, time, water and energy optimisation

10 March 2021
Focus area: Water
Program stream: Sustainability
Project number: 2020-1079

This project funded the investigation of the benefits of converting an industrual pasta cooker to a desterilisation unit for washing hooks and gambrels at an Australian meat processing plant. 

Gambrels were washed in an immersion process with stages of wash, rinse and dry combined in a single staged machine to reduce water consumption, energy, and labour.
 
As part of the project, a gambrel washer was delivered and commissioned on site. The machine allowed for multiple batches of gambrels to be cycled through the different stages of washing and maintained up to 2200 hooks in a single continuous cycle of operation. This has led to significant improvement of time efficiencies in this operation with the human intervention only required to remove filled and emptied tubs as the cycles complete.

Previous in this focus area 15 September 2023 Feasibility study for a refuse derived fuel created from paunch, biosolids and construction and demolition waste Next in this focus area 28 October 2021 Industry strategic narrative