Technical Fats

Animal by-products unsuitable for human consumption such as waste from abattoirs, animal corpse disposal centers, butchers and the meat processing industry contain valuable raw materials. Technical fats can be recovered from them and used in many branches of industry and also as components in animal feeds. To avoid risks to human and animal health, sterilization is also performed during the process of obtaining these fats.

GEA Westfalia Separator supports the recovery of these fats in both the screw press process (high-temperature rendering) and the low-temperature rendering process.

The first stage of the classic screw press process is dewatering the sterilized mass in special dryers. For the extraction of fat from the protein-containing meat slurry, screw presses are used to press out the fat under high pressure.

A GEA Westfalia Separator decanter is then used. After the fat from the press has been heated, the decanter separates the unwanted solid particles and these are returned to the process for additional fat recovery. Today, separators are also used to clarify the press fat, giving a residual dirt content of maximum 0.15 percent in the clean fat. The use of separators results in such a high quality that it can be burnt to generate steam. This allows a company to replace fossil fuels such as natural gas or oil correspondingly cheaply.

Whilst during the screw press process the water in the product is initially evaporated, the low-temperature rendering process relies on mechanical removal by centrifugal separation technology. This has a lower energy cost. The fat and the protein meal obtained are also of a higher quality.