Cost Effective Solution for Carcass Disposal in India - Integrated ...

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Volume 1, No 6, 2011
© Copyright 2010 All rights reserved Integrated Publishing Association
Research article ISSN 0976 – 4402
Cost Effective Solution for Carcass Disposal in India
Ahuja S. M
Department of Chemical Technology, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and
Technology, Longowal, Sangrur, Punjab, India
sandeepmahuja@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
To dispose of dead animals, specific sites (Hadda Rorri sites) have been earmarked in
villages and towns in India. However, there is no organized system for the disposal of
carcasses. In the absence of an organized and scientific system of disposal of dead animals, it
has become a major environmental hazard. While the skin is removed for its market value,
the flesh is allowed to putrefy without any control resulting in highly repellent stench
permeating into surrounding atmosphere. The dead animal is flayed for its hide and the
remaining part is left behind to putrefy in open. As no enclosure is provided, this attracts
vultures and dogs polluting the environment and creating health hazards. A nauseating
stinking smell is emanated from these sites which vitiates the whole ambience of the area and
even erodes the economic value of the surrounding land. These places are unguarded and
stray dogs & predators consume the dead animals with every danger of spread of disease.
Different technological options like rendering and composting have been studied and a cost
effective environment friendly solution having a payback period of about 2.5 years have been
arrived at.
Key words: carcass, rendering, composting, value addition, odor control
1. Background
Presently, there is no organized and scientific system of disposal of dead animals. Although
land (hudda rorri sites) has been earmarked for this purpose in almost all the villages and
towns, but in absence of scientific inputs and technological support, the disposal has become
a major environmental hazard. While the skin is removed for its market value, the flesh is
allowed to putrefy without any control resulting in highly repellent stench permeating into
surrounding atmosphere. This, besides being a health risk, dips the commercial value of
property and affects quality of life.
2. Existing Status
The interaction with the concerned government departments revealed that the handling and
disposal of carcasses of these animals is given on contract in cities and in some of the big
villages. In villages in general, the age old system is in vogue where of the persons from the
weaker section of the society handle the dead animals for the market value of the hide. It was
found that no attention is being paid by the contractors for a proper management of hadda
rorri sites. The dead animal is flayed for its hide and the remaining part is left behind to
putrefy in open. As no enclosure is provided, this attracts vultures and dogs polluting the
environment and creating health hazards as shown in figure 1 below:
Received on February, 2011 Published on April 2011 1373

Cost Effective Solution for Carcass Disposal in India
Figure 1: A typical picture of hadda rorri site
A rendering plant located at Ladhowal near Phillaur where dead animals are being processed
daily to manufacture tallow, bone meal and meat meal was also studied. This plant, though
commercially flourishing, is a typical case of unscientific management and a major source of
environmental de­gradation (Figure 2)
Figure 2: Pen pans used for cooking carcasses
About 20 dead animals are processed daily. After de­skinning whole carcass is boiled in
open big sized pan for 14­16 hrs. The tallow is skimmed off and the effluents generated are
allowed to stagnate on to surrounding land without any treatment. The bones and cooked
meat is taken out. While the bones are sent to the bone meal plant, cooked meat is crushed
and used as meat meal ingredient. The area around these plants is highly polluted and the
offensive odor permeates for kilometers around. The remnants of animal parts are scattered
all over the area which presents a ghastly site as shown in Figure 3
Figure 3: Organs of the dead animals being disposed of in open
Ahuja S. M
International Journal of Environmental Sciences Volume 1 No.6, 2011
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Cost Effective Solution for Carcass Disposal in India
3. Different technological options
Literature survey revealed that there can be following technological solutions to this problem:
· Dry rendering (Workers Manual, 1999)
· Composting (Herbert,1992)
· Wet rendering (Brent et al., 2004)
The dry rendering process is as such very expensive and hence it is not economically feasible.
The composting process has been implemented successfully is some countries (Composting
guide,2005) however, there are many operational problems and it has not been successful any
where in India. Discussions with experts revealed that the Central Leather research institute
has set a wet rendering plant in kanpur which is working efficiently for the last five years.
Although this plat was located in the residential area yet, there was no offensive odor in the
surroundings. Besides containing pollution the plant has a pay back period of about 2.5 years
due to recovery of bye products like, skin, hide, tallow, bone meal, meat meal and bone and
meat meal etc. Wet rendering along with the details of the plant have been described as under.
4. Wet rendering Process
Wet rendering involves removal of hides/skin at the flaying yard from the Carcass, separation
of rumen contents and horns and hooves. The rest of the animal body consisting of flesh,
tissues and bones is cooked in a cooker for obtaining tallow and cooked meat and bones.
Limited amount of water is added in the cooker for the production of steam. The separation
of cooked meat from bones is carried out manually. The separated bones are crushed in the
bone crusher for obtaining bone meal. The separated cooked meal is generally sun dried.
However, during rainy season this meat is first minced in the meat mincer and then dried in a
rotary dryer. The dried meat is pulverized in the pulverizer for producing meat meal. The
meat meal can also be mixed with bone meal for making meat cum bone meal. The various
unit operations involved in a typical wet rendering plant are enunciated below:
4.1 Cooking operation
The cooking vessel is based on the principle of an autoclave. It is made up of a metallic drum
with circular perforated plate that rests on three angular supports. The outer surface of the
vessels is lagged with asbestos to prevent loss of heat. The asbestos is covered with thin
metallic sheet to avoid soaking.
Figure 4: Pressure cooker for
boiling of meat and Bones
Figure 5: Wire mesh
container for filling the meat
Ahuja S. M
International Journal of Environmental Sciences Volume 1 No.6, 2011
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Cost Effective Solution for Carcass Disposal in India
Figure 6: Arrangement for loading and unloading of pressure cooker
The top end of the vessel is provided with a flange and a groove. A water level gauge and a
draw off valve have been provided. The photographs of a typical rendering pressure cooker
along with its inner details are shown in Figures. 4, 5 and 6.
4.2 Extraction of tallow
The slurry containing tallow is colleted into an open pan from the rendering vessel. It is
allowed to cool so that fat will solidify on the top layer. Fat is scooped off and collected in a
separate vessel. There are impurities such as water with soluble proteins and some minerals.
Hence the fat containing water and other impurities has to be cooked in an open pan by
adding alum and salt. Water is allowed to get evaporated and then purified tallow is
collected.
The bones after cooking become soft and pliable. These bones are separated from soft tissues
manually by the workers. This separation is shown in Figure 7 & 8
Figure 7: Meat and bones after boiling
Ahuja S. M
International Journal of Environmental Sciences Volume 1 No.6, 2011
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Cost Effective Solution for Carcass Disposal in India
Figure 8: Separation of bones and meat after boiling
5. Cost benefits analysis of proposed Rendering Process:
The economic viability of this technology is for processing at least four to five carcasses Per
day. Considering only 50% of big size animals, 60 big size animals will be received in one
month and around 700 big sized animals will be received per year. Thus, the cost benefit
analysis is calculated considering only the big sized animals.
The estimated fixed cost of a typical wet rendering plant for processing 4­5 carcasses per day
is Rs. 15.00 lacs and it requires an annual working capital of Rs. 4.00 lacs. The value
addition due to recovery of various products is estimated as Rs. 9.6 lacs per annum. Thus,
the net annual profit would be Rs. 5.6 lacs and such a plant has a payback period of 2.5 years
only.
6. Conclusion
There are three technological options for disposal of carcass. These are dry rendering, wet
rendering and composting. However, under Indian conditions the best possible cost effective
and environmentally solution is wet rendering. This will not only provide a practical solution
for controlling offensive odor pollution but will also have economic benefit to the poor
people engaged in carcass handling by recovery of bye products like, skin, hide tallow, bone
meal and meat meal etc. This technology has an estimated pay back period of only 2.5 years.
References
1. Workers manual on carcass recovery and byproducts utilization, Central Leather
Research Institute Adyar, Chennai, 1999.
2. Composting animal mortalities of the farm, Herebert L Brodie Lewis E Carr,
Department of Biological resources engineering University of Maryland College
park, 1992.
3. Composting facility Code No 317, Natural resources conservation service
conservation practie standard December 1990.
Ahuja S. M
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Cost Effective Solution for Carcass Disposal in India
4. Whole animal composting of dairy cattle Michael Looper extension Dairy specialist,
New Mexico State University May 2002.
5. Carcass Disposal: A Comprehensive Review National Agricultural Biosecurity
Center Consortium USDA APHIS Cooperative Agreement Project.Carcass
Disposal Working Group, Brent Auvermann ,Ahmad Kalbasi, Anindita Ahmed,
Texas A & M University August 2004.
6. Composting Animal Mortalities: a producer’s Guide, University of Saskatchewan,
Canada, January 2005.
7. Composting Deadstock a Producer’s Guide to Effective Mortality Management,
1999.
8. Dead Animal Composting H. M. Keener and D. L. Elwell, Harold M. Keener,
Dept. of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering, OARDC, 1680 Madison
Avenue, Wooster, OH 44691.
9. Rynk, R.(Ed.) 1992. On­farm Composting Handbook, NRAES­54. Northeast
Regional Agricultural Engineering Service, Ithaca, N.Y. White, D.G., J.M.
Regenstein, T. Richard and S. Goldhor. 1989.
10. Report on Composting Animal Mortalities By Debra Elias Morse, July 2001,
University of Minnesota. www.mda.state.mn.us
Ahuja S. M
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