In mid 2008, the board of Pioneer Fishing, a South African fishing company active in the fishmeal/fish oil, canning and frozen fish sectors, approved a USD2.5m investment in the upgrade of its Oranjevis fishmeal plant on the West Coast, approximately 170km from Cape Town.
The upgrade involved the replacement of its flame driers with three steam driers (delivered December 2008 and operating since April this year), the replacement of the stick water plants with a falling film waste heat evaporator (operational since May this year) and improvements in oil treatment.
A search of suitable equipment led Pioneer Fishing to TripleNine, who had equipment available from its decommissioned Esbjerg plant in Denmark. After agreement on the terms of sale had been reached, Oranjevis sent two members of its technical team to Esbjerg in September 2008 for the dismantling process, which was done together with TripleNine personnel. Meanwhile, following a discussion between Pioneer Fishing and TripleNine, it was decided to enter into a cooperation agreement, which provided for:
• Training of Oranjevis operators in correct operation of equipment purchased from TripleNine
• Assistance by TripleNine with erection and commissioning of the plant
• Assistance by TripleNine with production and quality control to ensure optimum quality of meal and oil
• Export marketing by TripleNine of the steam dried fishmeal production of Oranjevis, with Pioneer Fishing handling the logistics
The benefit of the investment for Oranjevis is that it will now be able to produce steam dried instead of FAQ fishmeal with a higher protein content. With the bigger capacity and new waste heat evaporator, a substantial saving in energy consumption will be shown, and improved yield will be obtained through utilisation of 100% of the stick water concentrate, says the companies.
