Volume 8, Number 2, Fall 1996
Topic for this issue: ENVIRONMENTAL
Environmental cost considerations enhance overall decision-making process
Environmental research initiatives
SBR research continues to demonstrate system versatility and treatment
effectiveness
New computer program aids in-house water reduction studies
Poultry World returns to Georgia National Fair
Environmental cost considerations enhance overall decision-making process
Total cost accounting (TCA) methods provide a means of allocating specific
costs to individual products. Researchers at Georgia Tech are applying TCA
methods to poultry processing plant operations to identify the contribution
of environmental costs to specific products' costs. They are also developing
tools to help identify and control environmental costs.
The costs associated with generating and disposing of waste have become
an important financial consideration for many manufacturers. In fact, many
industries are reconsidering the way in which they view environmental issues
altogether. Although many industries are adjusting processes only to the
degree necessary to comply with increasingly stringent discharge permits
and regulations, other industries have begun to realize that environmentally
aware processing can result in significant cost savings.
In an Agricultural Technology Research Program project, Georgia Tech
researcher John Pierson is studying total cost accounting methods as they
relate to poultry processing plant operations with the goal of trying to
allocate environmental cost impacts to specific products.
At many Georgia poultry plants, for example, water use and treatment
costs have been rising at a rate far greater than inflation in Georgia,
yet many plants continue to overlook these costs until they surface as a
problem.
Using total cost accounting methods, processors handle decisions in which
water use is affected just like any other key processing cost. Water consumption
and waste production become factors in decisions in all areas of the plant
that influence them, even indirectly. For instance, introduction of a new
automatic rinse station might improve food safety but it might also increase
water consumption and waste treatment costs. All impacts would have to be
accounted for in the cost equation.
As an example, let's say Company Z produces four products. When factoring
costs for raw materials and labor, each item produces the following profits
per unit:
Product A: $1.00
Product B: $0.95
Product C: $0.95
Product D: $0.80
Manufacture of each product accounts for a portion of the environmental
costs as follows:
Product A: 80%
Product B: 5%
Product C: 10%
Product D: 5%
If the plant considers the environmental costs for producing each product,
the profits are reduced. Assuming daily environmental costs for the plant
are $100, actual profits become:
Product A: $0.20
Product B: $0.90
Product C: $0.86
Product D: $0.76
In this case, Product B nets the highest profit. This information, considered
along with product demand, enables production schedulers to maximize profits.
Pierson's environmental cost accounting research builds on other research
also taking place at Georgia Tech designed to aid in the identification
of quantifiable environmental cost allocations for specific manufacturing
processes and products.
Wastewater Treatment Optimization
Tech researchers are working to optimize current wastewater treatment
processes such as dissolved air flotation (DAF) and sequencing batch reactors
(SBR). A pilot-scale DAF unit is used to fine-tune process methods or modifications
at Georgia poultry plants. Researchers have also built two pilot-scale SBRs
that utilize a biological process to treat wastewater.
Process Line Improvements
Georgia Tech engineers are seeking better operating practices that will
minimize waste by reducing it at the source, modifying processes or equipment,
or recycling. They are also evaluating commercially available monitoring
and instrumentation systems that use sensors to collect real-time data from
process streams to see if such systems could help the industry improve the
overall production process and waste generation monitoring.
Researchers also have developed a water reduction performance support
system software package called WaRP, to allow companies to conduct water
reduction studies in-plant. WaRP guides operators, plant engineers, or facility
managers in diagnosing possible sources of excessive water consumption and
provides assistance on how to identify, measure, and reduce losses.
Product Environmental Costs
Researchers are examining individual process steps, processing lines,
and overall facility operations to quantify materials flow, consumption,
and generation of wastes or by-products. They first define appropriate boundaries
for manufacturing operations and can then determine the total environmental
costs associated with a specific process by developing methods to determine
how much waste is generated. They are also studying the methods that plants
currently use to track product and the associated wastes generated to determine
if the full impact of waste generation is accounted for.
Pierson and his team are using data obtained from these research projects
to analyze environmental costs associated with poultry processing across
the different stages of product life cycle. They are also examining organizational
response to environ-mental costing input to see how these costs affect business
decisions.
Based on the research findings, they plan to also recommend research
and technological advancements necessary to further account for environmental
costs in poultry processing plant operations.
Environmental research initiatives
The environmental research initiatives conducted under the Georgia Tech
Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP) have traditionally focused
on end-of-pipe treatment of wastewaters. In recent years, researchers
have enhanced dissolved-air flotation, anaerobic packed-bed reactors,
hybrid anaerobic lagoons, and sequencing batch reactors. They have also
identified potential environmental challenges to the poultry processing
industry and have developed nutrient removal and electronic technologies
that aid in environmental compliance.
Recently, debates about national policy designed to reduce the compliance
burdens placed on industries while maintaining current environmental achievements
have sent the poultry industry conflicting messages and raised concerns
about costs.
To help the industry deal with these changing policy objectives, ATRP's
environmental research initiatives are focusing on several areas at once.
These areas include:
addressing the many environmental regulatory compliance issues faced
by the industry;
actively pursuing and demonstrating viable cleaner technologies that
can lower costs and enhance performance now or in the near term;
developing methods for assisting the industry in incorporating pollution
prevention strategies, cleaner technologies, and environmental stewardship
into everyday business practices and operations.
Several projects are concurrently underway that identify research needs,
address current and near-term industry compliance needs, and demonstrate
environmental stewardship. These projects include continued work with sequencing
batch reactors, development of a computer-based consultation program to
assist in strategies to reduce water usage, and evaluation of environmental
costs in the poultry processing industry.
SBR research continues to demonstrate system versatility and treatment
effectiveness
Sequencing batch reactor (SBR) research at Georgia Tech is helping poultry
processors to understand how the technology can optimize their wastewater
treatment operations. SBRs offer many benefits including the ability to
treat many pollutants. Researchers are also investigating the use of computers
to automate the control of batch sequences based on wastewater content.
The poultry industry is facing many new and difficult challenges in the
areas of waste treatment and waste management. Water restrictions, waste-disposal
regulations, waste-treatment costs, and community environmental concerns
all must be considered as poultry-processing plants examine their waste-management
strategies. Researchers at Georgia Tech have been working to find treatment
methods that will offer processors better choices for a number of years.
One of the methods the researchers have been studying in recent years is
the use of sequencing-batch reactors (SBRs) for pretreatment or further
treatment of poultry-processing wastewater and for treatment of isolated
waste streams.
As the name implies, SBRs treat wastewater in batches. Many processors
are more familiar with continuous treatment, such as that performed by dissolved-air-flotation
units (DAFs). Unlike DAF units, in which a continuous flow of raw wastewater
enters the unit and a continuous flow of treated wastewater exits the unit,
SBRs take in a batch of wastewater all at once, treat that wastewater, and
then discharge the entire batch. Sequencing batches means that wastewater
goes through more than one batch treatment, one after the other.
Although it requires a sizable holding tank (or other storage for the
batches during treatment), SBR processing offers a number of benefits. Each
SBR process can treat a different type of pollutant, if necessary. Also,
SBR stages can be added or removed as needed to meet the treatment needs
of individual plants. For example, if a plant decides to add a new cooking
process that adds a substantial grease load to the plant's wastewater, another
batch treatment stage can be added to the treatment system with a minimum
of additional investment. This flexibility makes SBRs a particularly promising
alternative for processors with limited space to dedicate to wastewater-treatment
processes.
Georgia Tech has built two pilot-scale SBRs, which have been tested at
a Georgia processing plant for over one year. The reactors utilize an activated-sludge
process to treat wastewater, meaning that the treatment is biological rather
than chemical. The research team has diverted a side-stream of the plant's
wastewater stream from the regular treatment flow to the SBRs. As a rule,
the researchers have operated the two systems at the same time, but with
different controls in place; this setup allows them to compare the two systems
and evaluate their removal efficiencies. A major goal of the research project
has been to determine what types of batch sequences are most effective for
different processing operations.
In recent months, the researchers have been looking closely at the units'
performance in removing carbon-, nitrogen- and phosphorus-based pollutants
from processing-plant wastewater. (These pollutants, which can escape or
overwhelm DAF treatment systems, are being targeted by some of the new wastewater-discharge
regulations affecting the industry). An important consideration is removing
as many pollutants as possible while keeping to a minimum the time that
the wastewater must spend in the treatment tank (known as hydraulic retention
time).
In an effort to achieve the best treatment results, researchers are investigating
the use of computers to control the sequences based on changes in wastewater
content. For example, if a plant discharges used marinades periodically,
those discharges will add an especially heavy grease load to the plant's
wastewater for a brief time. The researchers are examining the possibilities
of using sensors to detect changes in the strength or content of the plant's
waste stream, then report these differences to a computer that can make
appropriate changes to the length or sequence of batch processes.
The results from the SBR field tests show great promise. The units have
demonstrated over 90 percent removal efficiencies for COD, BOD5 and solids,
with hydraulic retention times of only 4 hours. In addition, the SBR units
have succeeded in performing sufficient nitrification (conversion of ammonia
to nitrate) to remove up to 95 percent of the ammonia from wastewater.
The research team is continuing field studies on the best operational
methods for optimizing the removal of all targeted pollutants of interest
to the poultry industry. The researchers' current efforts include analyzing
the data gathered from the field studies to determine the shortest hydraulic
retention times that will meet environmental regulations. They are also
examining the effects of the plant's cleaning cycles (and the detergents
used) on the organisms in the activated sludge that actually perform the
treatment.
New computer program aids in-house water reduction studies
Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a computer-based consultation
program called WaRP (Water Reduction Performance Support System) to aid
in water use management at poultry processing plants. WaRP allows users
to perform a water audit of a plant without external assistance.
Georgia's growing economy has rapidly increased consumer and industrial
demands for the state's water resources. This increasing demand on a fixed
natural resource is making it of paramount importance that water management
strategies or activities now include solutions that address not only wastewater
treatment but water usage as well.
A large body of work has been completed regarding water reduction options
for poultry processing facilities. Although expertise exists among those
who have conducted studies in this area, methodologies that allow plants
to conduct their own in-house water use audits and assess water reduction
strategies are not readily available. To address this deficiency, Georgia
Tech researchers are attempting to take advantage of computer technology
to provide plant engineers with a tool to tackle this challenge head on.
Researchers have developed a first-generation, computer-based consultation
program called WaRP (Water Reduction Performance Support System) that allows
users to perform a water audit of a poultry processing plant without having
to call in external assistance.
By asking specific questions, the WaRP program guides operators, plant
engineers, or facility managers through the common steps and decisions needed
to evaluate water usage at the plant. Once the user answers the questions,
the WaRP program processes the data and information for that specific plant.
Using WaRP's trouble-shooting step-by-step approach, users can diagnose
possible sources where water is excessively consumed. If the plant needs
to reduce its water usage, WaRP will help the plant engineer identify opportunities
to reduce water use and will also recommend ways to implement these changes.
WaRP also provides assistance on measuring the water balance in and out
of the facility and can help plant engineers compare their facility's water
usage to the poultry processing industry in general.
If at any time throughout the process the user has a question, he or
she can quickly contact a Georgia Tech engineer and cite a common frame
of reference from the WaRP program, which will help the Georgia Tech engineer
easily understand and answer the user's question.
Georgia Tech engineers are currently validating the general water reduction
strategies presented in the program by visiting and consulting with poultry
processing plants. On-site visits have also ensured that the WaRP system
contains an appropriate level of detail to assist all processors. The WaRP
program also provides enough flexibility to address individual, process-specific
issues.
Poultry World returns to the Georgia National Fair
Poultry World, a special exhibit designed by Georgia Tech and the Georgia
Poultry Federation, made its second appearance at the Georgia National
Fair in Perry, Georgia, October 4-13, 1996. Built to educate the public
about the poultry industry in Georgia, the exhibit won an international
award for "Outstanding agricultural special event for fairs from
250,000 to 500,000" in its inaugural appearance last year.
This year's exhibit included, in addition to many of last year's features,
incubators provided by the University of Georgia in which chicks hatched
from eggs and the animatonic chickens from Centennial Olympic Park used
as part of the Showcase of Southern Agriculture during the Olympic Games.
Over 30,000 people were estimated to have visited the exhibit, including
17,000 school children. The exhibit was staffed by over 100 volunteers from
poultry companies, allied industry sectors, and universities and also received
support from the Poultry Youth Program managed by the Georgia Department
of Agriculture.
Credits
Stephanie Babbitt, Editor
Nancy Davis, Contributing Editor
Dara O'Neil, Contributing Editor and Production Editor
Office of Food Industry Programs | Georgia Tech Research Institute | Georgia
Tech
Authored by the Office of Food Industry Programs
Craig Wyvill, Director OFIP
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0823 USA
Telephone: 404/894-3412
Copyright © Georgia Tech Research Corporation, 1998. All Rights Reserved.
URL: http://atrp.gatech.edu |
