Raw material is picked up and delivered to Mendota Agri-products by Mahoney Environmental. The contents of the trucks are dumped into a receiving pit. Solids conveyed from the bulk pit and strained from the roto-strainer are also added to this pit for processing. The raw material from the receiving pit is then conveyed across a belt, where foreign material such as plastic and cardboard, are removed by operator. There is a magnet that hangs over the belt, which picks up any metal in the raw material. The belt conveyor then dumps into a prebreaker which grinds the bones into 1" pieces. The material is then conveyed to one of three batch cookers. Once in, the batch cookers paddle- mix the material while steam is added to the jacket. The material is cooked to a temperature of at least 220 degrees for no less than 30 minutes. Time and temperature are monitored by thermocouplers mounted on cookers. Each cooker is then recorded on a graph to show its progress. Each cooker has a 5 lbs. vacuum pulling moisture out of it. These vapors are brought through an entrapment tank and then sent to the air condenser. In the condenser, air is used to turn the vapors back into water. The water is then pumped to the waste water system for processing. The non-condensables are sent to a venturi scrubber, then the mist eliminator, and are finally incinerated in the boiler fireboxes. Once the cooker has finished cooking, it is dumped into a perc pan. The tallow is then strained through a screen in the bottom of the perc pan and pumped to a cone-bottomed tank. The bones and meat scraps are then conveyed to the press. At the press, 350 lbs. or more of pressure is dry rendered tankage is then conveyed to a van trailer for shipment. The tallow is pumped to a cone tank. Samples of the DRT are taken and sent out for salmonella testing. Vapors off of the press are sent through with the cooker vapors for processing. Once the cone tank is full, fines are settled off the bottom and put back into the raw pit. The tallow is then transferred to a settling tank, where it sets for 24 hours. Emulsion is then settled off and sent to the evaporator for processing. The finished tallow is sent to storage.