Sustainable Development Goals
Organizations Involved:
Harris Ranch Beef Company, City of Fresno, FuelCell Energy, Veolia, Biothane, Biodiesel Technologies, JH Kelly, TetraTech
Services:
Due Diligence Services, Feasibility Studies, Plant Efficiency Upgrades, Supply Chain Management, Carbon Management, Package Solutions, Component Supply
The Challenge:
Since the 1930s, Harris Ranch Beef Company ("HRBC") has focused on producing the best-tasting, wholesome products for customers worldwide. Located in California’s Central Valley, HRBC is well-equipped to serve the needs of our retail, food service, e-commerce, and export customers.
The Harris family grew beyond their agricultural roots and, together with the visionary management team at Harris Ranch, built the sophisticated, state-of-the-art cattle feeding and beef processing companies now owned by the Coelho family. Their diversified business has become California's largest cattle feeder, beef processor, and beef marketer.
With over $600 million in annual sales, Harris Ranch Beef Company is one of the largest functionally integrated beef producers in the Western United States. As the processing and marketing arm of their beef division, Harris Ranch Beef Company is proud to have established one of the first branded beef programs in the country in 1982. Harris Ranch partners with dozens of the West’s most progressive ranching families to produce cattle to their quality specifications. Harris Ranch’s beef production system features:
The beef division of Harris Ranch annually produces and markets over 200 million pounds of beef, making it the largest, functionally integrated beef operation in California. Harris Ranch operates one of the largest cattle finishing facilities in the Western United States. With a feedlot covering nearly 800 acres, Harris Feeding Company can feed and finish up to 120,000 head of cattle at once.
Continuing innovation at Harris Ranch keeps it competitive in the beef industry. It stays informed of cutting-edge research regarding matters that concern consumers. Harris Ranch is a leader in animal welfare practices and environmental sustainability, maintaining the highest standards of food safety and quality assurance.
Harris Ranch continually strives to produce the highest quality beef in the world. As a part of its continued commitment to animal welfare, the environment, and innovation, Harris engaged Klean Industries to take a deep dive into numerous aspects of its business to bring technology innovation to the forefront of its operations. After 80 years of doing business, a lot of things have changed in the technology space, and the key findings that need modernization were:
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The Solution:
Work began in August 2008 to conduct detailed energy and waste audits combined with a lifecycle analysis of potential technology solutions and their impact on HRBC business from a long-term, holistic point of view. To address the issues mentioned above, the KleanTeam developed a comprehensive plan to improve the financial performance and radically enhance HRBC's environmental performance to create a leadership position for HRBC from a farm-to-table perspective. Doing so would mean producing the lowest carbon-intensity beef in the marketplace while setting the gold standard in sustainable beef production.
Klean Industries' energy solutions profile for the HRBC project required using the best commercially available technologies ("BCAT"). All technology solutions must be proven to have the lowest carbon emission profile possible. Additionally, capital costs, implementation timelines, and operating costs were significant to ensure a high internal rate of return on investment.
Understandably, HRBC was also not interested in a change in its core business, meaning that the solutions presented had to be integrated seamlessly with its core business and should not interfere with its ongoing operations. Another key consideration was that the proposed solutions could only use feedstock produced as a part of HRBC's core operations, as acquiring additional feedstock was not an option. This is a fit-for-purpose solution based on a data analytics review of business growth over 80 years, focusing on creating outstanding brand recognition globally. Based on these criteria, what technology solutions would make the most sense?
Integration: Four Unique Issues & Four Unique Solutions
Wastewater: Reduce water use and consumption volume substantially to levels below industrial beef processing standards and treat critical wastewater issues with an innovative and proven integrated wastewater treatment system that produces biogas. Make better use of feedlot manure and co-combine manure with specific volumes of wastewater in an integrated anaerobic digester plant to increase biogas production and clean water. This leads to less water usage and waste in a water-scarce region that one day could be metered.
Energy: Reduce the beef processing plant consumption of electrical energy during peak demand and find innovative solutions to produce or procure green energy. Offset the high-cost energy demand with low-cost and self-generated power using an integrated fuel cell plant fueled by the biogas produced via integrated wastewater and anaerobic digester treatment plant 100% of the power needed to run the entire beef processing plant is offset with extra capacity sent into the grid as an added revenue driver.
Waste: Eliminate all the waste produced explicitly from beef processing by converting waste materials into 10m gallons of value-added biodiesel, which can be used to offset tractor and refrigerated trailer fuel costs. Surplus fuel can be sold in the open market as a revenue driver from biofuel sales. Utilize the glycerin by-product from biodiesel production as a fuel feedstock in the wastewater treatment plant to produce "rocket-fueled" biogas; microbes love glycerin, which significantly improves the volume and quality of biogas production.
Risk: Reduce transportation costs of waste from beef processing being rendered offsite. This reduces pathogen exposure from food processing. An integrated facility creates better transparency and the public understanding of what a truly sustainable brand achieves by removing the risk factors and focusing on a “Triple Bottom Line” approach.
The Outcome:
The realization is that beef can be farmed so that integrated systems create symbiosis, radically improving traditional businesses' environmental performance and financial outcomes. These integrated solutions, when combined, build massive and lasting benefits for generations to come. At the same time, it positively reinforces a company's commitment to the never-ending pursuit of bettering itself for the benefit of its customers and the planet. Total project costs on a turn-key basis were US$ 70m, which included the wastewater treatment plant, rendering plant, biodiesel plant, and fuel cell power plant, not including full Renewable Portfolio Standard ("RPS") grants for the fuel cell plant and biodiesel blenders tax credits which delivered a 65% return on investment.
The result proved that incremental process improvements with the right plan, technologies, and integration solutions can make lasting improvements. These kinds of projects are truly superb and radically benefit future generations. This project illustrates how farm-to-table can be done by creating a symbiosis between waste and food. At Klean Industries, we take a holistic approach to the preservation and conservation of finite resources; below are the key attributes of this project:
If you would like to learn more about this project, please get in touch with us now >> GO.
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