Tubular heat exchangers for revaluation of slaughterhouse waste
Process system for revaluation of slaughterhouse waste: background
A poultry slaughterhouse located in Germany contacted SACOME to carry out a process of revaluation for their waste.
This slaughterhouse mainly processes chicken meat and afterwards they shred and package it for sale for human consumption, being all the process completely automated. In the factory there are about 200 people working and they process between 65.000 and 125.000 chickens per day.
Our client had initially a problem with the high amount of animal wastes generated, so they decided to look for its revaluation. Therefore, they opted for processing the waste by means of crushing and cooling it, with the purpose of sale them as pet-food.
The solution: tubular heat exchangers for revaluation of slaughterhouse waste
SACOME has provided a complete “turnkey” system for enabling the waste revaluation process required by the customer. The scope of supply includes:
- Thermal treating section for cooling by means of tubular heat exchangers
- Flanged and automated product side valves
- CIP System with skid frame
- Regulation & control, with a SIEMENS S7-300 PLC automaton
- Transport to client’s facilities
- Start-up, carried out with the rest of the plant in operation
- Training on site for the workshop operators for a correct handling of the installation
SACOME can supply complete processing plants in turnkey basis, including heat exchangers, regulation and control, start-up and training on site.
Process description for revaluation of slaughterhouse waste
The process plant supplied by SACOME has initially the object to cool 1.800 kg/h of minced poultry waste (capacity that has subsequently been increased up to 5.000 kg/h) for their transformation into a revalorized product, which is suitable for consumption by other animals.
The cooling process ensures the product preservation in optimal conditions during its transport to the customer’s facilities. The meat waste is taken at 30 ºC and is cooled down to 5/10 ºC, to be stored for the subsequent refrigerated transport.
In addiction. the client also requested us to provide the Cleaning-in-Place (CIP) system destined to the automated cleaning of the product line, as well as additional components, being all the system mounted onto a skid frame.
The cooling process is a critical step in order to preserve the features of the revalorized waste to convert it to the consumption points.
Product specifications in the revaluation of slaughterhouse waste
The product is a heterogeneous mixture of meat waste (composed of minced intestines, heads, feet, wings and bones) from different poultry meat, mainly turkey, chicken and goose.
Given the impossibility of knowing these properties a priori (mainly viscosity-temperature curves), several pumping tests were carried out in an existing installation in the customer’s facilities.For the thermal design of the plant, the proper determination of the product physical properties is essential: density, specific heat, thermal conductivity and viscosity.
Based on these previous tests, the product physical properties were agreed with customer, according to the engineers experience of the Technical Department of SACOME for this specific application.
SACOME has a large database of physical properties for different types of meat waste, ensuring the optimal thermal design of processing plants.
Tubular heat exchangers design for revaluation of slaughterhouse waste
For this project we supply our S-TF20-I Tubular Heat Exchager, whose main features are:
Monotubular Geometry
S-TF20-I Tubular Heat Exchanger consists of 2 concentric tubes: waste flows through the inner tube and the refrigerant flows through the anular space. This design is ideal for avoid the plugging risk of the heat exchangers, given the high content and the large size of the present solids in the product.
Optimal Solution
The design of the process system is a trade-off solution between to increase the cross section looking for the plugging prevention, to process the meat at a good velocity for enhancing the thermal exchange, and to keep the pressure drop within reasonable values.
Modular Design
A design with flanged connections was selected with the purpose of facilitate the dismantle of the units for maintenance and cleaning operations, and to add more modules to increase the duty, if required.
Pump Unit
Meat wastes are very viscous products, so the pressure drop in the inner tube side can be quite high. An accurate determination of pressure drop allows a correct selection for the pump (positive displacement model), and the design pressure.
Process Duty
The supplied process system can be adapted to a very variable capacity by means of a pump unit with frequency converter to allow the client to run with variable process flowrates between 1.800 and 5.000 kg/h.
Corrugation of inner tubes
The inner tubes were SOFT corrugated in each unit in order to increase the turbulence of the product, but without an excessive increment of the pressure drop, which appears in corrugated tubes.
Key Figures
Process Flow Rate (chickens/day)
SACOME System Product Capacity (kg/h)
Cooling Temperature (°C)
Thermal Duty (Kcal/h)
Design pressure of product side (bar)
Floor Space (mm)