Electrically powered drying of fish meal

The fish meal industry is an important sector within the Icelandic fish industry and has applied technology in recent years. Fish meal processing is an energy intensive process. For better control of energy utilization in the process a mass- and energy flow model was set up for processing different raw material, and simultaneously for a better overview for the process. The model is a good tool to influence the quality of the fish meal products. The main aim of the project was to analyse the energy usage and contribute to improved energy utilization specially for the air drying with the new electric air heating equipment. The drying is the last step in the process and waste heat is utilized at previous stages in the process. The aim of the project is to estimate the benefits of using electricity to heat air for drying of fish meal. In that way it would be possible to reach the goal for the Icelandic marine sector to utilize exclusively domestic renewable energy for fish meal processing, reduce imports of oil for shore processing and reduce the carbon footprint. Measurements in the process were carried out for four kinds of raw material for evaluation of mass flow through the process. The electric air heater has proved its worth in HB Grandi fish meal factory in Vopnafjordur, Iceland in terms of operational security, energy utilization, control and maintenance.Matís - AV