Energy savings

Ukraine - Effective solutions for reducing the carbon footprint and reducing of the energy resources consumption in the poultry breeding process. 

In today's world, where energy efficiency is the main driver of business success, poultry producers are actively promoting new technologies to reduce the carbon footprint and optimize energy consumption cost. Yuri Raksha, technical director of the “Ptahokompleks” branch of the “Vinnytsya Poultry Factory” LLC tell us about modern solutions that help achieve these goals.

Please tell us about the peculiarities and way of poultry breeding in your company.

Yuriy Raksha: “The branch of “Ptakhokompleks” of “Vinnytsya Poultry Factory” LLC is one of the largest producers of poultry products in Ukraine, and our enterprise is continuously developing to achieve the highest standards of efficiency. We placed our production capacities on 19 sites, where 722 poultry houses are functioning, each of them has approximately 55 thousand poultry head capacity. It allows us to achieve high production results, while keeping control of the conditions of poultry breeding at all stages.

However, our approach to production is not only the grate scale. We are promoting innovative approaches to create optimal production conditions for poultry breeding using floor type of poultry housing. At the beginning, placement density is 24 birds per square meter, what ensures adequate space for birds comfort. During the growth process we selectively decrease number of birds on 26th day. This makes possible to reduce the density to 12 heads per square meter, ensuring up to 38 kg of live weight per square meter before slaughter.

We pay particular attention to litter materials, which also play an important role in ensuring a healthy microclimate in the poultry house. Using of sunflower husks as a litter ensures optimal humidity level and hygiene, eliminates unpleasant odor. It is not only comfortable for birds, but also improves quality of final product.”

What solutions do you propose to decrease energy resources consumption during production process and what is your experience of improving microclimate in poultry houses?

Yuriy Raksha: “We constantly work on implementing of solutions that will allow us to optimize process of microclimate control in poultry houses. At the beginning, we used basic programs that ensured only air exchanges. However, technological progress allowed us to implement more sophisticated systems, which performe virtual veterinarian functions. These systems not only provide automatic control of temperature, humidity and other parameters, but also allow to adapt conditions in poultry house to state of poultry and external parameters.

One of our priorities is the decrease of energy resources consumption, and for this we used heat recovery technologies. The installation of Clima Unit heat exchanger from Vencomatic Group made it possible to significantly reduce natural gas consumption for poultry houses heating. This system saves heat from exhausting air and minimizes need of additional energy expenditures.

Heat recovery not only saves resources, but also improves conditions of poultry housing. The Clima Unit ensures significant reduction of volume of harmful combustion products, such as CO² and other gases, that release during operation of traditional heating systems. This creates a clean microclimate, which positively affects poultry health and its productivity.”

Why did you choose and install the Clima Unit? Did this heat exchanger improve your production results after you started to use it?

Yuriy Raksha: “We chose the Clima Unit because of its effectiveness and ability to reduce energy consumption. This system operates on the principle of incoming/outcoming ventilation with embedded heat exchanger, that ensures heat recovery throughout the whole poultry growing cycle. This allows us to save heat in poultry houses during the coldest periods, significantly reducing the need of gas consumption.

Thanks to Clima Unit we ensure constant ventilation of poultry houses, which allows us to maintain an optimal microclimate. Air is supplied evenly through automated valves, what minimizes risk of temperature fluctuation. We noticed that litter became more dry due to decrease of water vapor formed during gas combustion. It ensures proper hygiene and comfort for birds.

Results of testing Clima Unit system proved to be even better than we expected: natural gas savings were 44%, what exceeded earlier forecast (33–34%). In addition, meat production increased by 2% per square meter. It means that implementing of this technology not only allows us to save resources, but also to increase the efficiency of the whole production process.”

What economic results did you receive after installation Clima Unit?

Yuriy Raksha: "After we installed the equipment we began to exploit it in framework of the experiment. Five full cycles of poultry farming were performed to fully evaluate functionality of the equipment under various external conditions. During all five cycles operational results of poultry house with installed Clima Unit were compared with operational results of two or three neighboring poultry houses, where conditions for birds keeping were identical i.e. placing density, cross of birds and microclimate parameters were exactly the same.

Thus an official experiment has been performed, and operational results received after finishing of each cycle were examined. At the end of the fifth cycle, the average poultry growing results were summarized according to the following indicators: reduction of gas consumption per kilogram of meat, meat yield in kilograms of live weight, consumption of feed and electricity per kilogram of meat. Received figures allowed us to calculate economic component of the project, in particular, IRR (internal rate of return) and period of payback. As a result, an investment form, in which the results of the experiment were outlined, was developed. Based on these data, we have reached preliminary conclusions and are currently considering possibility of scaling up this project.

Since we installed Clima Unit our financial performance has improved significantly. The internal rate of return (IRR) was 25%, which is quite high for this kind of investment. The payback period of the system is about 4.4 years, but if we manage to reduce the initial investment costs, this period will be even shorter, which will make the project even more economically attractive."