Environment-friendly: Plant to extract fat from flesh operational

LAHORE:

A fat-extraction plant, first of its kind in the country, was test run in Kasur on Monday. It uses a safe, environment-friendly and cost-effective technology to extract fats from fleshing produced by tanneries, said an official from the Environment Protection Department.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has installed the plant under its One UN Joint Programme. The plant was commissioned in 2012 at a cost of Rs145 million.

The government has contributed Rs50 million, the Kasur Tanneries Waste Management Agency Rs18 million and the UNIDO Rs68.8 million to the project.

The official said that the plant was capable of extracting 1.9 kilogrammes of oil from 10 kilogrammes of fleshing. It would help reduce solid waste pollution by up to 90 per cent and loads of fleshing in Kasur from 50 – 70 tonnes a day, the official said.

He said some locals had been operating units that boiled fleshing in open pans. “The total installed capacity of these units is approximately 276 tonnes a day. They use wood and leather trimmings as fuel that contribute to pollution.”

Environment Protection Secretary Iqbal Muhammad Chauhan said the department was exploring methods to run the new plant on commercial basis through public-private-partnership. The plant would meet its expenditures from its earnings, Chauhan said.

He said its operation had been delayed owing to negligence of the officials concerned. “All issues have now been resolved.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2015.