Assessing Feasibility of Water Accounting Toolkit for in a Poultry Processing Plant

Abstract

In this project, we will be looking into the use of a toolkit called water accounting as applied to a food processing plant and determine its effectiveness as a toolkit for monitoring water usage in a factory. The main objective of this thesis report is to 1. Recommend reducing water consumption by applying the water accounting toolkit. 2. Provide a standardized tool for the case study company to measure their sustainability progress and communicate that information clearly. This report will also discuss the extent in which the company can reduce their water consumption and their various methods in which to do so. In order to fill out the water accounting toolkit, the information regarding the flow of water into the different components of a compound factory must be considered. In this case the different components are as follows. 1. Duck Slaughter House, 2. Chicken Slaughter House, 3. Duck Processing Plant, 4. Chicken processing plant 1 and 2. We will be determining the flow of water going through each of the different components to determine which process takes up the most amount of water and potential ways in which to reduce the water consumption. It is determined that the slaughter houses take up the most amount of water; namely the duck slaughter house so in order to reduce it. It has been calculated that approximately 48,000 m3 of water is being used in the production process each day while only approximately 11,600 m3 of water can be found in the final product. There are many ways in which to reduce the water consumption of the factory, 1. Increase the number of water treatment facilities 2. Consistently update the water usage table 3. Purchase new technology that reduces water usage. 4. Change policy regarding maintenance and cleaning. 5. Educating employees regarding water management. Water accounting has many benefits and limitations to their use. Firstly the benefits are that it is extremely beneficial to communicate difficult concepts and process large amounts of information. It can be easily audited and traced. Whereas the disadvantages is the difficulty in implementing this toolkit to a factory; it requires someone with knowledge about how this model works and what information goes where. However, after implementing it should be easy to maintain as information can be readily fed into it.