Energetic Analysis of Poultry Processing Operations

Energy audit of three poultry processing plants was conducted in southwestern Nigeria. The plants were grouped into three different categories based on their production capacities. The survey involved all the five easily defined unit operations utilized by the poultry processing industry and the experimental design allowed the energy consumed in each unit operation to be measured. The results of the audit revealed that scalding & defeathering is the most energy intensive unit operation in all the three plant categories, averagely accounting for about 44 % of the total energy consumption in the processing plants. Other processing operations consuming energy in the following order are eviscerating (17.5%), slaughtering (17%), washing & chilling (16%) and packing (6%). The results of the study clearly indicated that the least mechanized of the plants consumed the highest energy (50.36 MJ) followed by the semi-mechanized plant (28.04 MJ) and the most mechanized plant (17.83 MJ). The energy audits have provided baseline information needed for carrying out budgeting, forecasting energy requirements and planning plant expansion in the poultry processing industries in the study area