HB Grandi is upping the volume at its Akranes fishmeal plant with a new production line for handling by-products from groundfish production.
The new line, which is the plant’s third, uses steam produced by an electrically-fired boiler instead of an oil-fired system and HB Grandi has secured a 2.5 MW supply for this production.
Almar Sigurjónsson, department manager, fishmeal production, HB Grandi, said: “It would certainly have been possible to process this amount with the production lines we already have in place at the factory, but the volume is fairly small and it is hardly worthwhile starting up such a large system for small amounts, in addition to which, we prefer to process raw material while it is fresh and using locally-produced power.”
The new production line has been installed over the last few weeks and among the equipment fitted are a cooker, a press, evaporation system and a decanter. It will be able to handle around 55 tonnes of raw material per day.
“We plan to start production over the next few days. The volume of material from the Nordurgardur factory in Reykjavík is around 10,000 tonnes annually. The meal and oil produced from this are excellent for manufacturing feed as the freshness of the raw material is as good as it can be and the salt content is minimal,” added Mr Sigurjónsson.
Elsewhere, the company’s new Ísbjörninn refrigerated cold store at Nordurgardur is doing its bit for to reduce time and costs. It has resulted in a reduction in freight traffic by road through the city of Reykjavík, with 110 fewer trips than usual so far this year. So far, 1,300 tonnes of frozen produce has been shipping out from the new cold store.
