Big water users

Press, 18 March 1977, Page 14

Big water users

Freezing works use a great deal of water. In his report to the New Zealand Energy Research and Development Committee on energy conservation in the meat industry, Mr R. G. Pilling says that returns from 33 works indicate that 47,D00M litres of cold water are used in a year. While no exact figures are available on hot water production because of a lack of metering, it was generally accepted that a minimum of 10 per cent of cold water was converted into hot or tepid water giving a figure of 4700 M litres per year. While hot water usage varied considerably between works, he said that an estimate was four litres per kilogram of meat. Hygiene regulations were specific about temperatures of water to be used, but not on the volumes of water required. It had been estimated that the cost of hot water could amount to 0.6 c per kg of meat processed, so that for the production of 765,000 tonnes of meat in 1074-75 the hot water cost could have been as high as $4.59M. A 30 per cent saving in hot water would amount to $1.38M a year, he said.