Manufacturing

The Chelsea sugar's new sugar purification process has reaped savings in labour, gas and water use and reduced discharges of wastewater, heat and air pollution.

The new process forces sugar liquor through granulated activated carbon in five 62 kilolitre pressurised stainless steel vessels, to remove impurities. It replaced a process that had remained almost unchanged for 120 years.

As a result, NZ Sugar had achieved 13% greenhosue gas emission reduction. The plant is repaying its $7 million cost in just 3.8 years.

Christchurch specialty meats producer Verkerks is paying for a lot less energy after taking a fresh look at how it generates heat and processes waste.

By converting the boiler to burn tallow, a meat processing byproduct, Verkerks will likely cut their energy costs by $150,000 a year.

The boiler at the company's processing plant produces steam for heating the smoke houses and fermenting rooms, and water heating.

Until recently the boiler operated only on diesel, consuming around 7,000 litres - and thousands of dollars - every week.

Winemakers Pernod Ricard are set to cut their natural gas bill by $21,000 a year thanks to a new hot-water boiler at the company's Auckland wine-bottling plant.

The $55,000 Northvale boiler is used to heat water for cleaning the equipment at the plant. It is almost 12% more efficient than the steam boiler it replaced, and it is expected to reduce the amount of natural gas the company uses by 479,000 kWh a year.

After installing a permanent magnetic stirrer in their gas-fired furnace, the aluminium extrusion and fabrication manufacturer, MCK Metals is saving 6.8 per cent in gas energy consumption.

The permanent magnetic stirrer not only reduces the melting time required, it also increases the amount of aluminium melted per hour.

In addition to the energy savings, the stirrer delivers other benefits: its maintenance free, easy to operate, and has a large circulation capacity. It also reduces wastage and improves product quality.