                               Site Visit Report
             Alaska Seafood Processing Industry Petition Response
                                       
Lindsay Guzzo 
Environmental Engineer
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Region 10 Permits Division
guzzo.lindsay@epa.gov
206-553-0268
                 Betsy Bicknell 
                 Senior Environmental Engineer 
                 Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG)
                 betsy.bicknell@erg.com
                 703-633-1612

Plant Name
Kodiak Fishmeal Company
Plant Address
Kodiak, Alaska
NPDES Permit #
AKG528234
Date of Visit
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
People Contacted
Gary Anthony, Plant Manager

Seafood processed
Fin fish heads, viscera, trimmings, and other processing waste. Some crab waste.
Products
White fish meal, salmon fish meal, salmon oil, and bond meal
Range of annual production volume
900 MT maximum capacity; typically 100 to 350 MT/day.
Months of operation 
Year round
Discharge type
Process wastewater
Website
http://www.kodiakfishmealcompany.com

Information presented in this report was obtained from discussions with Mr. Gary Anthony, Plant Manager and reflects his opinions. The Kodiak Fishmeal Company website was also consulted for some production information and photographs. Mr. Anthony provided a diagram of the process operations  (attached to this report) after the site visit. 

Background. Kodiak Fishmeal Company (shown in Figures 1 and 2) is located on Gibson Cover Road about 1(1/2) miles southwest of the 7-8 seafood processors for which it processes waste. Its location outside of the main harbor and town center has reduced complaints about odor from the plant compared to a predecessor plant located closer to town.

According to their website, "Kodiak Fishmeal Company opened business with a new fish by-products processing facility in January of 1995. Its purpose is to produce top-grade fishmeals for use in the aquaculture and livestock feed markets as well as the agriculture business. The facility consists of 23,216 square feet and is capable of processing over 1,000 metric tons of fish per day." (source: http://www.kodiakfishmealcompany.com/about.html) 

Mr. Anthony noted that the maximum capacity is 900 MT/day. For 10 to 12 days during pollock season they run 800 to 900 MT/day. The 1,000 MT rating posted on the website described the plant when it was new; it is not the current operating maximum. They typically run 100 to 350 MT/day. Kodiak Fishmeal has 18 full time employees, including 3 office staff, 10 day shift operators, and 5 night shift operators. 

Kodiak Fishmeal operates all year round. They make fishmeal from January through October. They make some intermittent batches during in November and December and use the down time for plant maintenance. Table 1 lists the fish processed, by date. 

Table 1: Kodiak Fishmeal Production 
Dates
Fish
January 1 - January 20
cod
January 20 - February 14
pollock
February 15 - March 6
cod
March 15 - March 28
pollock
March 30 - June 1*
Sole and flounder
June 9 - July 4 *
Salmon (sockeye)
July 5 - July 31
Sole and flounder
August 1 - August 20
Salmon (pink)
August 20 - September 5
Pollock
October 1 - October 14
Pollock
November 1 - December 31*
cod
      *Intermittent or limited production
      Source: http://www.kodiakfishmealcompany.com/production.html

They process a mixed waste stream, taking whatever wastes the Kodiak seafood processors generate; however, because fish harvests differ by season, the meal produced can be sold as "White Fish Meal" or "Salmon Meal." Waste processed includes a small amount of crab, including some Tanner Crab in the winter. 

The Kodiak Fishmeal Company is owned by five Kodiak seafood processing plants:

   1. Trident Seafoods;
   2. Alaska Fresh Seafoods;
   3. Western Alaska Seafoods;
   4. Ocean Beauty; and 
   5. North Pacific Seafoods. 

[Confidential Business Information (CBI) has been removed from this report.]

In addition to the five co-owners, Kodiak Fishmeal takes waste from the two other seafood processors in Kodiak. [CBI  has been removed from this report.]

Western Alaska Seafoods operates its own truck, which is totally enclosed. The other processors contract with a private trucking company to transport wastes to the Kodiak Fishmeal, [CBI  has been removed from this report.]


In January 2008, about 30 bald eagles became entangled in fish waste as it was being loaded into a truck destined for the fish meal plant. Since that time, the processors have been extra diligent about covering the trucks and curtaining the truck loading stations at each plant. Eagles are more likely to go after the waste in the winter. In summer there are plenty of salmon in the streams and the eagles do not need to scavenge at the seafood processing plants. 

The seafood processors typically manage their crab shell waste separately from the finfish waste. The fishmeal plant would prefer that the processors not segregate and grind the crab shells. This is because the crab shells can "bridge" in the storage silos, requiring extra labor to empty them. 

The plant produces white fish meal, salmon meal, salmon oil, and some bone meal. [CBI  has been removed from this report.] White fish oil is burned in the fishmeal plant boilers. 

There were at least two predecessors to the current meal plant: Biodry, which was privately owned, and Kodiak Reduction, a partnership. The Biodry plant was up on the hill closer to Gibson Cove Road. It had to shut down when the wind blew toward town because the community objected to the odor. The new plant is located below the road elevation, not visible from the road. It has generated fewer odor complaints. 

To control odor from the current plant, all exhaust is vented through a condenser and then Venturi scrubber that uses seawater as a scrubbing medium (Figure 3). The scrubbed exhaust gasses are used as make-up air for the boiler. The seawater line into the scrubber is equipped with a strainer to remove kelp and other large materials. After use in the scrubber, the seawater is discharged via the permitted outfall. Mr. Anthony noted that processing salmon season waste generates the most smell. 

Plant operators collect product samples from each pallet and van load. The samples are analyzed for protein, ash, fat, and moisture content. Bags of excess sample are retained in the event that customers have questions. 

Bone, which is high in ash (mainly calcium and phosphorus) and low in protein, is sifted out of the meal to obtain a product with relatively higher protein concentration. High ash (bone) fish meal is sold for use as fertilizer. [CBI  has been removed from this report.]
 
If the fishmeal plant goes down because of mechanical failure or other upset, they are responsible for disposing of the waste from the Kodiak seafood processing plants. They can store 360 MT of waste. Waste in excess of that amount must be disposed of off shore. Kodiak Fishmeal Company contracts with a bargeman who is "on call," [CBI  has been removed from this report.] Mr. Anthony reports they used the barge once in the last four years. When the fishmeal plant can't take the waste, the processing plants transfer it to the dock at Western Alaska Seafoods where it is loaded into the barge. 

Maintenance and Cleaning. To minimize possible downtime, the fishmeal plant maintains a large inventory of extra parts. It also has its own machine shop (lathes and milling machines) to repair and fabricate parts. 

The plant requires continual maintenance. Saltwater corrodes mild steel so they are converting augers to stainless steel. The plant is 15 years old and in that time the mild steel augers rusted through. 

Most of the plant equipment was manufactured by Atlas Stord, but they have some Alfa Laval separators. The plant equipment is cleaned-in-place with caustic between runs. The oil centrifuge is the most difficult to clean piece of equipment. The Alfa Laval separator is easy to disassemble for cleaning. 

Energy Use. The Kodiak Fishmeal Company plant burns a blend of 99% fish oil and 1% diesel oil. [CBI  has been removed from this report.]The fish oil is produced from pollock. There is little oil in cod waste and salmon oil is sold. They have four 18,000 gallon tanks to store up to 70,000 gallons of fish oil and one diesel oil tank. The fish oil can gel-up in winter, so they must use diesel oil for 3-4 weeks in the winter when the temperatures are consistently below 20°. They also use diesel oil during salmon season. 

In July, Kodiak Fishmeal Company spent $24,600 for electricity and used 150,500 kWhr (16.3 cents per kWhr). Kodiak's electricity is supplied by Kodiak Electricity Association, a rural electric cooperative. KEA generates electricity by a combination of hydroelectric, diesel, and wind turbines. The three 1.5 MW wind turbines are new and generated about 7% of Kodiak's electricity in 2010. 

Mr. Anthony estimated that per MT of raw product they used 37kW of electricity and roughly 10 gallons of diesel or fish oil to fuel the steam boilers.

Recovery Processes. Trucks arriving at Kodiak Fishmeal dump their loads into a hopper at one end of the plant (Figure 3). The driver logs the amount and species of fish waste delivered. A bucket elevator lifts the fish waste to a screw conveyor which conveys it into two 180 MT insulated silos (Figure 4). [CBI  has been removed from this report.]

From the storage silos, the fish waste is transferred into the plant via conveyors. Figures 6 and 7 show the interior of the plant. The waste is cooked at 95 to 100°C or above for 20 minutes. The cooking temperature is controlled by monitoring the liquid temperature at the cooker exit. The cooked waste is dewatered with a strainer followed by double screw presses. Steam is vented to the Venturi scrubber. The press cake is transferred to a drier. Waste heat from the drier is used in the 4[th] effect of the stickwater evaporators.

The liquids pressed from the cooked waste flow into a heated tank then to a decanter to remove additional solids. Next, the liquid is processed in three centrifuges to separate the oil and aqueous phases. A fourth centrifuge is used during salmon season for salmon oil polishing. Oil is pumped to a holding tank. Salmon oil is dispensed into 55 gallon drums [CBI  has been removed from this report.]. Mr. Anthony said he hopes to be able to change to SpaceKraft totes. Pollock oil is stored in four 18,000 gallon tanks outside of the building. 

[CBI  has been removed from this report.]. The pollock oil was recently tested and found to have higher Btu (104%) than diesel oil. 

The aqueous phase (stickwater) is about 6% solids but is evaporated to a 30 to 35% solids concentration to mix with the press cake. Stickwater is gummy, so they add enzymes to reduce evaporator gum-up. Hot stickwater from the centrifuges is transferred to a holding tank, cooled to less than 60°C, and dosed with a protease enzyme. Although it is possible to run the plant continuously, they have to shut down for an hour every 3-4 days to de-gum the stickwater evaporators. 

From the evaporator, the stickwater is transferred to a holding tank, cooled to 99°C, and then mixed with dry fish meal at a controlled rate. If the stickwater is added too quickly the mixture will ball-up. From the mixing process the fishmeal passes through a shaker hashing machine then to a drier. The drier operates at 160 to 165 psi. It is equipped with a steam jacket and steam is injected. Drying the meal requires about 2 hours through time. 

From the drier, the meal is transferred to an Atlas meal cooler. If the meal is stored without cooling it can combust spontaneously. After the cooler, the meal goes to a shaker equipped with screens to separate bone (ash). For salmon, the screens are (1/2)" mesh. For other products, the screens have a smaller mesh to take out more ash. After final grinding in two hammermills (equipped with dust control) the meal is stored in six storage silos prior to packaging. Salmon meal is packed in 1400 lb totes. White fish meal is packed in 25 kg bags. The meal is 9-13% moisture as it is removed from the drier and 6-8% moisture at the end of the process. 

Kodiak Fishmeal recently switched to an automated bag filling process. In this process, filled bags are separated by a slip sheet of cardboard, stacked, and wrapped in plastic. This wrapped stack approach eliminates the use of wooden shipping pallets which cost $6 each. The wrapped stacks are transferred into a shipping van with a wide paddle fork lift. Production[CBI  has been removed from this report.] is shipped by barge. 

Process controls. The plant is controlled using PLC controls. With the exception of new memory boards for new equipment, the original control system from when the plant was built in 1995 is still in use. 

Changes since construction. Kodiak Fishmeal added additional storage, the hammermill, and an additional oil centrifuge. They are planning to replace the mild steel augers that have corroded with stainless steel augers.  


Figure 1 Kodiak Fishmeal Company (sourc:e http://www.kodiakfishmealcompany.com)



Figure 2 Kodiak Fishmeal Company (sourc:e http://www.kodiakfishmealcompany.com)

Figure 3. Kodiak Fish Meal Air Pollution Control Scrubber


Figure 4. Kodiak Fish Meal Waste Receipt


Figure 5. Kodiak Fish Meal Fish Oil Storage Tanks

Figure 6. Kodiak Fish Meal Interior (source: http://www.kodiakfishmealcompany.com/product.html)




Figure 7. Kodiak Fish Meal Interior (source: http://www.kodiakfishmealcompany.com/product.html)

