At a Glance

CGPP2004/2

Atlanfish Ltd., based in Carndonagh,

Co. Donegal is a leading processor of
Irish seafood products. The CGPP
project at Atlanfish aimed to study
and monitor the consumption of
natural resources and implement
process improvements to reduce
waste.
During the project a
production management system was
implemented to monitor the
generation of waste through the
production process. Through the
auditing
of
the
information
generated by the production
management system and studies of
water and energy use throughout the
process, a number of process
improvements were implemented.
These included the refitting of
process cooling vessels and the
installation of a centralised washing
system to reduce water use and the
lagging of steam pipes to reduce
energy losses.

Moving Towards a More Sustainable

Fish Industry

Other changes were made to the

purchasing system to encourage
fishermen to return underweight or
sub-standard material back to the sea
and re-use rejected material as bait.
These improvements have helped the
company to reduce water usage by
almost 26% and product wastage by
almost 2%. This has resulted in
savings of over 11,000 per annum
and increased sales by over 150,000
per annum. Other improvements
implemented since the beginning of
the first CGPP project include an
increase in recycling from 0 to 95%,
resulting in savings of around
23,000 per annum on disposal
costs.

Atlanfish,
Station House, Malin Road, Carndonagh,
Co. Donegal
Atlanfish Ltd., based in Carndonagh, Co.
Donegal is a leading processor of Irish seafood
products. The company serves the specialised
and diverse needs of the retail, wholesale, and
catering trade, for the seafood sector
worldwide. The company exports 100% of its
produce to many countries worldwide.
Established in 1976, the company has grown
from inauspicious beginnings in a small rented
unit to a quality-driven business occupying a
purpose-built factory equipped with the latest
production technology. The company produces
a range of crab and mussel products. Main
products include chilled, pasteurised, vacuumpacked crab, frozen, cooked, vacuum-packed
crab, frozen, cooked vacuum-packed mussels,
crab claws and crab meat. Other products
include fresh mussels and oysters.

New high pressure washing system

Aim of this Project

The CGPP project at Atlanfish aimed to study
and monitor the consumption of natural
resources and implement process improvements
to reduce waste. The project also aimed to train
all staff on these new processes and on waste
minimisation and energy reduction good
practice.
The project goals include: the
reduction in water usage by 25%; the reduction
in energy (diesel & electricity) usage by 5%; and
the reduction in raw material (crab & mussels)
wastage by 2%. The company plans to achieve
these targets by employing best practice

techniques used by other industries, that at the

moment are not commonly used within the fish
industry.
As a result of this project the company hopes to
reduce its environmental impact by reducing
natural resource consumption and reducing the
associated emissions. The reduction in wastage
of raw materials also reduces the strain on locally
over-fished waters and improves the
sustainability of the industry.

Project Description
The company carried out a series of
environmental audits to identify waste
prevention and reduction opportunities. These
audits focused on reducing the usage of raw
materials, as well as seeking energy, water and
solid waste reduction opportunities. The main
audit into reducing raw material usage was
carried out by monitoring the data compiled by
the production management system installed
during the project.
Other audits took the form of research into
historical meter readings and supplier invoices as
well as implementing new monitoring systems.
Water usage was monitored by taking regular
meter readings from the incoming supply and
compiling the water readings taken over the
previous five years. Wastewater production was
monitored using the sites wastewater flowmeter
and automatic sampler. The water usage from
individual processes and items of equipment
were also measured. The audit also looked at oil
usage over the previous five years and particular
attention was devoted to improving boiler
efficiency and recovering waste heat from the
various process streams. Work was also carried
out on quantifying levels of waste product and
packaging and methods for their reduction or
recovery.
One of the major benefits of carrying out the
environmental audit was a clear picture of the
quality of crab and mussels on a day to day
basis. This highlighted the suppliers who were
delivering poor quality crab and mussels and
thereby causing more rejects and more waste.
With this information now available instantly,
management can more quickly make decisions
on which suppliers to use and on purchasing
prices.
By analysing the water usage of the different
processes and pieces of machinery at the plant it
was possible to isolate which processes required
attention. Because the company could now
assign a cost to the various wastes, expenditure
on process improvements could be better
justified on an economic basis. This also applied
when looking at energy wastage. Since the
company now had a clear idea of the costs of

running the boiler it was able to see the

economic benefits of improving boiler
efficiency.
As the main aim of the project was to reduce
raw material usage, improvements were
developed in the purchasing of crab and
mussels and in improving the feedback to
suppliers. Changes were implemented to the
current method for cooling the crab after
pasteurisation, as this operation accounted for
around 30% of the factory water usage. A
centralised washing system was planned to
improve the efficiency of water used during
cleaning and the reduction in chemicals used.
Several improvements to boiler efficiency were
highlighted during the environmental audit,
such as improved lagging of pipes and vessels,
and improved boiler monitoring. Other various
good house keeping measures relating to the
reduction in wastage were identified. These
included recovery of useful by-products from
waste, recycling of waste packaging, and
training of staff to prevent wastage. These
improvement opportunities were prioritised,
based on the potential savings to the company,
with an emphasis on reductions in raw material
usage.

Achievements
The main focus of the project has been on
reducing raw material usage. During the
project, the amount of raw mussels used has
decreased from 1.165 kg / kg of product to
1.161 kg / kg of product. This is equivalent to
a reduction of 0.25% or a reduction in waste
volume of 1.2%. This is lower than expected
due to the way mussels are farmed, as they
cannot be returned to the sea once harvested.
This reduces the scope for the reduction in raw
material use. However, the amount of raw
crab used has decreased from 1.19 kg / kg of
product to 1.14 kg / kg of product. This is
equivalent to a reduction of 3.16% or a
reduction in waste volume of 8.9%. This is
better than expected and primarily due to the
changes in purchasing from suppliers brought
about by the production management system.
Also, the percentage of material that can be
used as top grade product has increased by
nearly 5%, which indicates the better quality of
crab being supplied. The volume of water used
has decreased from 20.34 m3 / tonne of
product to 15.10 m3 / tonne of product. This is
a reduction of 25.8% and is as expected due to
the changes in the cooling and cleaning
processes. The project hoped to reduce energy
use by around 5%. However, no real gains
have been made as the energy saved from
lagging the steam pipes and operating the
boiler more efficiently have been counter acted
by the installation of new plant on-site.
Economic Impact Due to the reduction in the
volume of raw material used per unit of
product, the company has been able to reduce
the volume of organic waste produced by
10.1%. This results in a saving of around
4065 per annum in recycling costs. However,
because more of the crab and mussels entering

the factory are resulting in finished product,

sales have been boosted by around 150,500
per annum. The reduction in water usage
results in savings of approximately 7500 per
annum. Energy costs have actually risen during
the project due to the installation of new plant
and large increases in unit energy prices.

Cleaner Greener Production Programme

Observations

Cleaner Greener Production is the application

of integrated preventive environmental
strategies to processes, products and services
to increase overall efficiency and reduce risks
to humans and the environment.

The project has undoubtedly impacted on the

suppliers to Atlanfish, as the company has
imposed stricter controls on the quality of fish
it accepts for processing. However, the
company likes to feel that the changes made
will benefit everyone in the long run as less
wastage improves the sustainability of local
fisheries and and ensures a comfortable future
for the local fish industry.

Lessons
The main lesson learned is that waste reduction
and prevention opportunities are easy to
identify when you have clear and
comprehensive information about your
companies activities.
The production
management system provides this information
on the waste generated from each batch and
stage in the production process, making it easy
to identify which processes or suppliers are
causing the greatest waste. This also applies to
the detailed audits carried out of the factorys
water and energy usage. Other lessons learned
during the project were: applying proper heat
transfer principles to site cooling processes; the
energy wasted from unlagged steam pipes;
and how measures designed to reduce waste
can also improve quality within the factory
for example, the new washing system.

The Cleaner Greener Production Programme

(CGPP) of the EPA was funded under the
National Development Plan 2000 2006. The
CGPP was launched in 2001 as a grant
scheme to Irish organisations to implement
cleaner greener practices while achieving
significant cost savings.

Production processes: conserving raw

materials and energy, eliminating toxic raw
materials, and reducing the quantity and
toxicity of all emissions and wastes
Products: reducing negative impacts along
the life cycle of a product, from raw
materials extraction to its ultimate disposal.
Services: incorporating environmental
concerns into designing and delivering
services.
The programme aims are focussed on avoiding
and preventing adverse environmental impact
rather than treating or cleaning up afterwards.
This approach brings better economic and
environmental efficiency.
Under Phase 2 of CGPP, 22 organisations were
funded from a variety of sectors (e.g.
chemicals, food, metals, electronics, service).
The total achievements from the projects for
the participating organisations included
annual reductions of 250,000 tonnes in
input/output streams (water/waste water),
660 MWh energy reduction and 1.6m cost
savings.
The programme will continue to be funded by
the EPA in the NDP 2007-2013.
This case study report is one of the reports
available from the companies that
participated in the second phase of the
Cleaner Greener Production Programme.
A summary of all the projects and CD
containing all the reports are also
available.
More information on the programme is
available from the EPA:
Ms. Lisa Sheils or Dr Brian Donlon,
Environmental Protection Agency,
Richview, Clonskeagh Rd., Dublin 14, Ireland.
www.epa.ie/researchandeducation/research/

Programme Managers...
Retrofitting of lagging on steam pipes

More Information
For more information on this project please
contact:
Gareth Gallagher,
Atlanfish, Station House, Malin Road,
Carndonagh, Co. Donegal, Ireland
email. gareth@atlanfish.com
tel.
00 353 (0) 7493 74285
fax.
00 353 (0) 7493 74685

The Clean Technology Centre (CTC) at Cork

Institute of Technology was appointed to
manage the programme. Established in 1991,
the CTC is now nationally and internationally
regarded as a centre of excellence in cleaner
production, environmental management and
eco-innovation across a range of industrial
sectors.