The Econoliser was developed with the combined goals of saving water and achieving the highest standard of sterilisation and these principles continue to guide all of our ongoing product development. Given the challenging environment in meat processing facilities, we have added reliability and ease of maintenance to our design goals.
We recognise the importance of being able to back up any claim that we make and therefore place great emphasis on the collection of data. Critical performance data includes:
- Swab test results
- Water usage
- Energy consumption
- Carbon footprint
Our process starts with our savings calculator. You can access a quick and easy calculator from this page but we also use a more detailed version in direct contact with customers, which shows the basis of our calculations more clearly.
Key to our calculations is a good understanding of the volume of water that your existing sterilisers are using. Some abattoirs already have this data but, while many know their overall water usage, it is often harder to pinpoint how much is specific to sterilisers. We sell low-cost in-line water meters to provide more accurate information and can also supply ultra-sonic meters that collect data without breaking into the water supply line.
Once we have good data, we establish how many sterilisers you have across your operations. This allows us to calculate an average per steriliser and reveals the true cost of running overflow immersion sterilisers.
With Econoliser, your water consumption is directly linked to the number of animals you are processing. Our model assumes that every steriliser is activated once per carcass and this allows for a direct comparison with your existing consumption.
40–50 m³
Water per day for conventional sterilisers
<2 m³
per day for 40 Econoliser knife sterilisers
Cost calculations require an understanding of how the water is heated. Our model deals with scenarios ranging from gas or oil-fired boilers to heat recovery and anaerobic digestion systems. It also accounts for the cost of buying and disposing of water, including treatment or tankering effluent off site.
With this fuller picture in place, we provide detailed estimates for your existing setup and the Econoliser equivalent, including an estimate of the CO2 linked to your sterilisers.
400+
Tonnes of CO2 saved per year
in a mid-sized example
6–18
Months typical payback period
We acknowledge the work done by the team of scientists working on behalf of the Australian Meat Producers Corporation (AMPC) in developing the CO2 emissions element of our model. The data and calculator outputs provide the information needed to build a clear business case for investment in Econolisers.
Saving water and cost would be of little interest if we couldn’t demonstrate that our sterilisers were at least as effective as traditional immersion baths. We have worked with customers and partners around the world to secure independent verification that our sterilisers deliver excellent swab-test results.
The most definitive report was produced by an independent team of scientists at the South Australian Research and Development Institute for the Australian Meat Processors Corporation. With Econolisers already installed in several Australian abattoirs, AMPC carried out an independent study of the Twin Knife Econoliser.
AMPC-funded trials in March and April at three plants – two processing cattle and one processing sheep – demonstrated the Econoliser was equivalent to traditional sterilisers at several stations, but with greatly reduced operational costs. The current constant flow steriliser is a pot that keeps water at a minimum temperature of 82°C and overflows at a rate of four to eight litres per minute. By contrast, the new Econoliser uses about 140ml per cleaning cycle for a pre-rinsed knife, delivering a 4.5 second spray of water at 35psi that is hotter than 82°C.
A comparison of estimated annual running costs for the two systems in an infrequent use steriliser setting, such as the carton meat assessment table in the boning room, showed potable water and energy bills were 99 per cent lower with the Econoliser and it generated 99 per cent fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
The outcome was approval by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries for the Econoliser to be used by the Australian meat processing sector.