Silos Cordoba

Silos Córdoba was founded in 1975 by Juan López Lietor  with the aim of fulfilling the needs of the stockbreeding market through grazing and storage solutions.
Today Silos Córdoba offers a wider range of products and services  to meet the demands of the market. That is the reason why the company has organized its activities in three specialized units that use the infrastructures and experience of the group.

31/03/14: As the IEC celebrates its 50th anniversary, IEC Business Conference Vienna 2014 gets off to an excellent start

Over 300 leaders and decision makers from egg businesses across the world are gathered in Vienna, Austria, this week for the International Egg Commission’s Business Conference.  During the next two days delegates will hear from industry experts and business leaders, as they discuss the latest trends and issues affecting the international egg industry.
 
Former EU Commissioner of Agriculture, Dr Franz Fischler and former ALDI Board Member and CEO, Johann Morwald will open the conference sessions on Monday morning.  Dr Fischler will provide invaluable insights into EU policy and the impact on supply price and stability of feed grains, and Johann Morwald will discuss retailer expectations for the food industry.
 
IEC Chairman, Cesar de Anda, officially opened the conference on Sunday evening; he welcomed over 300 delegates from 30 different countries. 2014 is a significant year for the IEC, as it celebrates its 50thanniversary; to mark this milestone, the organisation will be celebrating its past while looking to the future of the industry.
 
Cesar de Anda told delegates:  “I am delighted and proud to welcome you all to Vienna for our organisation’s first IEC Business Conference.  During the next two days we will have the opportunity to discuss the incredible strengths that our product, the egg, and our industry has to offer the world; we will also learn ways in which our businesses can become even more effective.  We have a fantastic line up of speakers from across the value chain ready to share their knowledge with us on subjects ranging from retailer expectations and egg marketing, to animal influenza and the very latest research into genetics.”
 
In addition to the conference sessions normally associated with IEC conferences, the new IEC Business Conference will also include new focus group committee meetings, where members will discuss production & trade and economic issues in more detail.  
Other speakers who will be sharing their expertise on Monday and Tuesday in Vienna include:
·         Nan-Dirk Mulder from Rabobank
·         Danielle Cagan from Nestlé
·         Dr David Swayne from USDA/Agricultural Research Service

We will bring you daily updates from the conference, ensuring that you are kept fully up to date.

For more information, please contact Vikki Millichamp at the IEC:  vikki@internationalegg.com

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine GFMT which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.

31/03/14: GRAPAS Speaker - Nick Wilkens

Nick Wilkens

Speaker: Nick Wilkins,
Director, Head of Rice Processing,
Buhler Sortex Ltd, London

 
Nick, a Mechanical Engineer by training, started his career with Rolls Royce Ltd, designing aero engines.  This was followed by a move to Oxford Instruments (OI) plc, a manufacturer of high-technology equipment and systems for industry, research, and healthcare.  Where he was responsible for the operations of the NMR manufacturing facilities.

Nick joined Buhler Sortex Ltd in 2005 as Manufacturing Director and was responsible for the manufacture of all optical sorting, and rice processing equipment.  He has been involved in the acquisition and successful integration of companies based in Brazil and China..  He has held responsibility for manufacturing facilities in the UK, India, EU & China.

For the last three years Nick has been heading Buhler’s worldwide rice processing activities.
 

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine GFMT which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.

31/03/14: 2nd Global Milling Conference on April 23-24, 2014 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India

31 April 2014: ASSOCOM INDIA in collaboration with United Kingdom based Perendale Publishers Limited (publishers of Grain and Feed Milling Technology Magazine–GFMT) is organizing 2nd Version of Global Milling Conference on April 23-24, 2014 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.  The 2nd Global Milling Conference will be hosted in the same week in city as VIV India 2014.

This event looks at bringing to India international participants as either speakers or delegates to review the Indian milling industry - flour, rice, feed and grains - from a milling processing

point-of-view. India with its one-billion-plus population will be a major user of milled products and a leading country in total milled grains in the decades ahead and will lead the region in technological advancements.

Dr Dinesh Bhosale, Chairman of CLFMA - the Compound Indian Feed Manufacture’s Association - will be one of keynote presenters and will be addressing feed technology in an industry that is booming in terms of total feed production.  He will be joined by the Director of Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology (IICPT), Dr K Alagusundaram, Dr. V. Prakash, Scientist, CSIR – India, Mysore, Dr. Ram Rajasekharan, PhD, FNA, FASc, FNASc, FNAAS Director - Central Food Technological Research Institute Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Pratish Batavia, the Managing Director of PD Navakar Bio-Chem Pvt.  Besides these a number of eminent speakers shall also be joined such as Mr. Pankaj Jaiminy, Asst. Vice President Food Certification, Testing & Inspection, TUV Sud South Asia, Dr. Y.N. Sreerama, Senior Scientist, Department of Grain Science and Technology CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI).

Eminent International speakers - Dr. Claus M. Braunbeck, Sales Manger Asia of Frigor Tec, Germany; Ms. Helena Pachón, Senior Nutrition Scientist, Flour Fortification Initiative Research Associate Professor, Hubert Department of Global Health, Emory University; Mr. Johan den Hartog, Managing Director, GMP+ International, The Netherlands and Mr. Roger Gilbert, Perendale Publishers Ltd (Publisher of GFMT magazine) will also make presentations.

Two-day conference

This year’s program covers both feed and food subject jointly over six sessions and panel discussion which include, in addition to the opening keynote session with its focus on UK, India and China, will include:

Day 1

Session 1: Opening & Keynote presentation

Session 2: Food & Feed Security “Feeding 9 billion by 2050”

Session 3: Milling Developments 1 “Minimizing energy usage in the mill”

Day 2

Session 4: Storage & Transportation “Quality in Quality Out”

Session 5: New Technologies “What’s new in feed and food milling?”

                  Processing of cereal grains and pulses for value value-added food ingredients

Session 6: Feed & Food Heat Treatments “Maintaining hygienic standards and the way ahead Adopting quality control programs & regulations”

The cost to attend is Rs.10,000/-Person for Indian delegates and US$250/person for foreign registrants. The full programme can be seen on the following links along with registration procedures. 

International registrations can be made through the link: http://conta.cc/1dLDToE

Indian registrations can be made through the link: http://www.assocom-india.com/gmc/

 The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine GFMT which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.

Braime

4B has the world's largest range of bucket elevator components, leading the field in elevator bucket and elevator bolt design and manufacturing the highest quality forged conveyor chains and elevator belting.

31/03/14: Feature: Tech Focus - NIR

Tech Focus - NIR by Grain and Feed Milling Technology magazine

Read more of our features here!

31/03/14: Kendall named new President of World Farmers Organisation

Former NFU President Peter Kendall has been named the new President of the World Farmers Organisation (WFO).

Mr Kendall was elected during the final session of the WFO General Assembly in Buenos Aries, Argentina, and succeeds American Robert Carlson.

The WFO is made up of more than 50 national farmers’ organisations and agricultural co-operatives and was formed to improve the livelihoods of farmers and the viability of rural communities as well as ensuring coherence with other agriculture related activities, such as forestry, aquaculture, the environment, trade, research and education.

NFU President Meurig Raymond, who has been attending the five-day conference, said: “I would like to congratulate Peter on his election as President of the WFO. Over the past eight years he did an outstanding job for the NFU in promoting British agriculture, not just at home, but to a worldwide audience. I know that in this role he will show the same effort and enthusiasm to help develop key agricultural policies, including food security, climate change and trade.”

28/03/14: GRAPAS Speaker - Robert Zhu

Robert Zhu

Speaker: Robert Zhu, Director Asian Food and Pasta Business, Buhler (Guangzhou) Food Machinery Co Ltd, China

Robert Zhu joined Buhler in 2002, after working as the head of Technology and Production in a flourmilling company of China, started new challenges in building up Customer Service organizationin Buhler China.

 With the experiences gained in the China market, Robert Zhu took over the management of the grain milling and the grain processing business. Since 2014, Robert Zhu is leading the Buhler’s Asian food and pasta activities and is to develop the manufacturing platform of Asian food applications.      

Mr Zhu will be addressing the following topics in his presentation at the GRAPAS Conference on April 8, 2014 in the BITEC, Bangkok:

1. Brief introduction of Buhler (Guangzhou) Food Machinery Co - a new joint venture acquired a local  company Yaoxian Food Machinery Co Ltd is to set up a platform offering worldwide Asian food solution from China
2. Main products and main market in the first stage will be strategically focus based on the existing product portfolio
3. Buhler's transferred products - TPVL/TPVA continuous dough mixer manufactured in China and its application and used in China  

Bentall Rowlands

Bentall Rowlands Storage Systems Limited specialises in the production of turnkey storage, storage handling and processing equipment for agriculture and industry.

28/03/14: New preconditioner: How does it increase global performance in feed extrusion processing?

The use of preconditioners

Preconditioning systems have generally been used in feed extrusion lines (e.g. dry pet food, fish-feed) to overcome certain limitations that single-screw extruders have in terms of mixing efficiency, cooking and flow capacity. They are currently used in diverse food and feed processing applications in both single-screw and co-rotating twin-screw extruders (TSE).

For example in TSE production of fish-feed pellets, preconditioners are recognized by industry specialists as being efficient because they improve productivity and quality and allow greater flexibility in controlling process parameters.

The function of preconditioners in extrusion

The preconditioner, located directly upstream of the extruder, is an equipment component that makes it possible to hydrate, pre-heat and homogeneously mix powdery raw materials with injected fluids (steam, water and potentially oil or slurries). This operation is carried out on a continuous basis and involves facilitating heat and mass transfer as regularly as possible between the solid, liquid and gaseous phases. The goal is to obtain a homogeneous pre-cooked product that is best adapted to the next stages.

The quality of this processing depends in large part on the intensity of the mechanical mixing, but also on the specific thermal and water diffusivity for each product, defined by the exposure time needed for the dry material to be in contact with the steam so that it is properly hydrated and heated. Empirically, a residence time of about two minutes was generally used upstream in the TSE for fish-feed flours. New fish-feed recipes –richer in vegetable proteins and with reduced starch– and new processing throughput and quality requirements for finished products have led to seek preconditioning times around three minutes or more.

This increase in preconditioning processing time results in energy and humidity being disseminated to the core of the particles, which is more efficient than simple surface treatment, even when apparently similar temperatures are reached. Eventually, all of the work carried out to prepare cooking and start the starch swelling is as much energy usefully gained by the product for the following stages of the cooking-extrusion processing.  

Innovations: description of operations

Clextral has developed a new innovative preconditioner to respond to process requirements and increase the capacity of existing systems. In the second part of this article, we refer to this equipment as “preconditioner+” (see Picture n°1) to describe how it operates and to introduce the main results of experimental tests.  

With the Preconditioner +, the main function - which is to continuously ensure an homogeneous mix of the raw materials - is carried out by two horizontal intermeshing counter-rotating shafts, fitted with adjustable paddles (see Picture n°2), designed to process the product flow in an optimal way. According to the specific throughput and the physical and chemical properties of each material being processed, it defines a distribution and filling ratio in the mixing unit, directly linked with the residence time required in the end.

The key innovation of the Preconditioner +, always aiming to improve heat and mass transfer to the product, is to integrate an Advanced Filling Control device (AFC) which interacts directly on the material inside the mixing chamber and which enables the filling ratio to be adjusted. This AFC system uses a special designed screw inside the tank, and modifies favorably the flow by enabling a partial and controlled recycling of the material being processed, from the outlet to the entry point, thus intensifying the specific preconditioning functions.

In addition, the AFC system does not just increase the filling ratio, but also generates better product distribution, in particular in the first third of the mixing chamber which is the preferential zone for steam injection. To achieve this, the different adjustable water and steam injection ports have been optimally positioned –axially and angularly– to enhance absorption and product exposure time during the mixing stage.

Experimental measurements on the Preconditioner +  

Extensive experimental trials on processing effects have been carried out on the preconditioner+ to assess the improvements generated by its AFC system on the twin-screw extrusion process. In this case, a standard fish-feed recipe (basic salmon feed) was used, without necessarily seeking optimal performance to begin with, but to set an objective benchmark compared to traditional preconditioning systems.

The first significant observation was a lowering of the SME (Specific Mechanical Energy) required in the extruder –an average of 3% with equal extrusion parameters– mainly due to the increase of preconditioning time, and largely compensating the additional consumption of the preconditioner. As mentioned previously, this efficient pre-cooking also enables a reduction of the shearing and the torque used in the extruder, which also is beneficial in reducing the wear of the screws and barrels.

By focusing exclusively on the preconditioner, the experiment also demonstrated that the new filling ratio (up to 75%) achieved by using the AFC, made it possible to increase residence time by 60% for an equivalent fish-feed flow and therefore to go beyond the average of three minutes sought. At the same time, the combination filling/steam distribution made it possible to increase the product temperature by 3-4°C at the outlet of the preconditioner, using comparable steam injection. It is even possible to achieve product temperature of over 96°C with optimized steam injection, while limiting energy loss thanks to the new design. Following the improvements on the pre-cooking stage, we were able to measure a significant increase of the gelatinization of starches before their insertion into the extruder.

Finally, on the finished product after extrusion, granulation and drying, these upstream modifications resulted in increased hardness of the pellets of at least 10 to 15%, an essential quality criterion required for their use in fish rearing farms.

Functional advantages of the Preconditioner + in industrial applications

Beyond the process benefits on product quality, it is important to stress that this equipment has also been designed to facilitate industrial applications, in particular due to the increased flexibility provided by the AFC. This variable-speed device makes it possible to adjust the residence time as required and thus adapt the equipment to different types of recipes, thus responding to the need to have multi-product extrusion lines. Moreover, this convenient design allows the system to start up when fully charged, even after prolonged down time with a full tank, thanks to the new kinematic feature. 

In terms of hygiene or food safety, the design of the preconditioner+ limits to a strict minimum the retention areas and thus greatly facilitates cleaning. This feature is further enhanced by an integrated “quick recipe change-over” function through the reversible AFC system, used here as a conveying screw that enables the entire tank to be emptied. These improvements in equipment cleaning capabilities and hygienic design are non-negligible advantages, in particular in food processing applications.

Eventually, the intensification of the preconditioner provides improvement in the overall process, energy savings and enhanced quality of finished products, as well as greater flexibility and better control of operating parameters, whatever the recipe.

Furthermore, the preconditioner can be easily adapted to single-screw or twin-screw extruders in various food processing applications that require a mix or the pre-cooking of raw materials, such as those used for making pet foods, corn flakes, pre-gelled flours or starches, pellets, etc.  

Written By:
Samuel Raymond

R&D Engineer – CLEXTRAL

Technology Development Department