Peter Assenbjerg from Assenbjerg Energy Technic in Give and project manager Søren Sondergaard next to the centrifuge. Fish oil – a new Royal Greenland product The production of fish oil as a new Royal Greenland product is slowly getting off the ground. At the end of October, a transportable cod liver oil plant was set up at the factory in Maniitsoq and is now producing cod liver oil. Next year, one of Royal Greenland’s new trawlers – Sisimiut – will start producing fish oil. “Basically, we want to make money from producing fish oil, and as an added bonus it would be great if producing the oil supports the message that Royal Greenland is an environmentally friendly company. We want to maximise the value of our raw materials, and given that we have access to cod liver as a raw material in Maniitsoq and fish trimmings on board one of our new trawlers, we decided to transform them into a new product,” says Lars Nielsen, group production director at Royal Greenland. Up to 1,000 litres a day The cod liver oil plant in Maniitsoq has now started to churn out a steady stream of the fin- est cod liver oil. Each cod liver contains about 50 per cent oil, and it is possible to produce approx. 500 ml oil per kg of liver. “The weight of the liver varies from 5-6 per cent right up to 15 per cent of the total weight of the cod. It depends a lot on the season. During the initial trials, we’ve produced an estimated 300400 kg. This equates to 500-1,000 litres a day, and this is what we are expecting to produce,” explains Sten Sørensen, operations manager for cod, and continues: “In connection with the launch of the project, we’ve done various calculations which suggest that if the conditions are right, then it will be a profitable venture. However, when you do something like this, it is always a bit of a gamble. It is, after all, a completely new process, and in fact we don’t know how much money we will make. But we expect to be able to make a profit.” The plant was constructed in cooperation with Assenbjerg Energy Technic in Give, a Danish firm of consulting engineers that specialises in production and machine technology as well as energy. Expectations for liver oil Royal Greenland will also start producing fish oil on one of the company’s new trawlers, Sisimiut, which is still being built. The trawler, which will be delivered in May 2019, will produce Greenland halibut, cod and fishmeal, while by-catches, skin, bones, liver etc. will be used to produce fish oil. This fish oil will be sold as animal feed. Royal Greenland is really pinning its hopes on the liver oil production in Maniitsoq. The production of liver oil started at the end of October after a short testing period, when the cod season was coming to an end. Production takes place at a transportable plant, which sits inside a container outside the factory. 4 NAVIGATIO NO. 2 2018
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