I N C O R P O R AT I N G f i s h far m ing t e c h no l og y

May | June 2013 Pelleting and extrusion in aquafeed technology

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The International magazine for the aquaculture feed industry

FEATURE

Pelleting and extrusion in aquafeed technology

by Doris Du, sales representative, Allance Machinery, China

quaculture is a developing activity around the world. As the industry grows, so does the aquafeed market. Aquafeeds are comprised of a number of ingredients that are mixed in various proportions to complement one another to form a nutritionally complete compound diet. According to the physical characteristics, they can be divided into powder, particle, pelleted and extrusion aquafeed. They can also be divided into sinking, slow sinking and floating aquafeed according to their buoyancy. On the basis of aquafeed energy, they can be divided into low energy, medium energy and high-energy aquafeeds.

Grinding It is a particle size reduction process for raw Common basic raw materials to the Aquafeed processing technology materials by hammer mills. Grinding is benefimanufacture of most aquafeeds are similar to The manufacture of aquafeeds is more those employed in the manufacture of other complex than common feed manufacture. cial for the mixing operation and can improve the nutritional utilization types of animal of raw materials. For feeds. However, it Table 1: Classification of aquafeeds based upon the energy levels and processing technology aquafeed processing, an should be noted low energy Medium energy High energy ultra fine feed hammer that aquafeeds mill is necessary. should avoid the use of high levels Protein (%) 30-40 43-52 40-48 Mixing of plant or vegThe ground materials etable fibres and Fat (%) 6-13 12-25 22-35 must be mixed with carbohydrates Processing machine aquafeed pellet mill extruder/aquafeed pellet mill extruder the proportioned raw which are poorly target species salmon, trout seabass, turbot carp, tilapia materials to obtain a digested and
34 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | May-June 2013

Raw materials for aquafeed production

transformed by fish. Raw materials for aquafeeds include cereals (maize, wheat, barley, rice, oat etc.), cereal by-products (wheat flour, corn bran, wheat bran etc.), meat meal, fishmeal, shrimp meal, squid meal, blood meal, poultry by-product meal, (full fat) soybean meal, other vegetable protein meals, fats and oils, vitamin and mineral premix, salt, stabilizers and binders etc. The major components of aquafeeds are protein (plant protein, animal protein and single cell protein), starch (sinking aquafeed consists more than 10% and floating aquafeed consists more than 20%), crude fat, raw fibre, crude ash and micronutrients. Starch has great gelatinization under high temperature and high humidity conditions. It can improve the stability of aquafeeds and extrusion density of extruded aquafeeds.

Hardness, size, buoyancy, durability and water stability must all be taken into account. Aquafeed processing technology is not unique. It relies on the development made in conventional animal feed processing technology, but with some specific applications. The main processing technology for aquafeeds is pelleting (mainly produce sinking aquafeeds) and extrusion (can produce sinking or floating extruded aquafeeds). Aquafeed pelleting technology is stricter than common animal pelleted feed. Typically, sinking aquafeeds are mostly made with feed pellet mills. Pelleting is still the predominate method for sinking feed production. The aquafeed pelleting processes is described below:

FEATURE
Table 2: Starch contents of common energy feed raw materials raw material Starch content (dry matter) 70-75% 75-80% 5-8% 65.5-82% 21.5% raw material Starch content (dry matter) 71.6% 81% 60% 45% 0.5%

Whole maize Flour Wheat bran Winter wheat Wheat middling

Sorghum Whole rice Whole barley Whole oat Soybean meal (44%)

homogeneous mixture. During the mixing process, feed ribbon blender or double paddle feed mixer is the most commonly used equipment. Pelleting Pelleting can be defined as the agglomeration of small particles into a larger solid with a given shape and texture, by means of a mechanical process in combination with moisture, heat and pressure. The main factors which affect pelleting are ingredients characteristics, moisturizing or steaming before pelleting, die thickness and binders etc. The ring die aquatic feed pellet mill is the professional pelleting machine for aquafeed processing. Cooling The temperature of the aquafeed pellets squeezed out the pellet mill is high. They

should be cooled before other operations. A counterflow pellet cooler is a high-efficiency cooling machine. Coating Coating can improve upgrade the aquafeed quality. The physical property of the feed is improved. The fat sprayed on the aquafeed pellets has certain permeability; it can permeate into the pellets in subsequent crafts and transport process. That can reduce the scatter of feed particles and dust. The fat spraying machine is also known as feed pellet coating machine. Crumbling It is a necessary process in aquafeed pellet processing as some fish need smaller pellets. The roll type crumbler can break the aquafeed pellets into smaller particles.

Screening In order to improve aquafeed quality, fines from cooled aquafeed pellets should be removed and the pellet size should be uniform. Rotary feed pellet grading sieve is just the machine.

Aquafeed extrusion technology

A significant application of the extrusion process is in the production of aquafeeds. Extrusion has won some popularity and is widely accepted. Compared to the pelleting method, extrusion can be defined as a technological process, namely, forcing feed raw material in one or more of the following process conditions (such as mixing, heating, cutting etc.) flow through the die, make material forming or eruption gasification. Extrusion allows buoyancy control to make floating, sinking or slow sinking feed by changing the

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May-June 2013 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | 35

FEATURE

soy flour for both the food and feed industries. Preconditioning is a very important part of the wet extrusion process for steam or water injection into either the conditioner and/or Dry or wet extrusion the extruder barrel. Different shapes and sizes of aquatic The most important aspect of the preconfeed can be produced using extrusion technology. Extrusion with steam precon- ditioning system is the potential for additional ditioning is known as wet extrusion and mixing and the retention time, which is necesextrusion without steam preconditioning sary for chemical or physical reactions to take is called dry extrusion. Dry extruders place. The Allance aquafeed extruder for were used in processing low moisture, example, can produce dry and wet aquafeeds. highly expanded starch products and in Dry feed pellets are stable for relatively long processing whole soybeans to full-fat periods, for convenient storage and distribution. The wet type processing needs a boiler to make Table 3: extruded aquafeeds versus pelleted aquafeeds steam to the conditioner and extruded feed Pelleted feed ripen the raw material in advance. extrusion condition including temperature, pressure, die aperture diameter and shear rate etc.
Bonding degree Floating and sinking Stability in water Fines in aquafeeds nutriment digestibility Funding Processing cost equipment wear strong beneficial better fewer higher bigger higher slower strong just sinking good few lower smaller lower quicker

screw extruders directly has many advantages, such as low ingredient cost, less fine generated, good water stability and pleasant appearance. Twin-screw extruders were first used in the 1950s for manufacturing thermoplastics. They were developed on the basis of singlescrew extrusion machine, with a double screw installed side by side in the barrel. A fully meshed co-rotating (both screws turn same direction) extruder greatly improved material conveying, pumping and mixing characteristics. Compared to a single-screw extruder, a TSE has a much wider operating range in terms of use of moisture, internal fat, mechanical energy input and product size. The domestic high quality twin-screw extruder has reached an advanced level in technical performance and manufacturing level with high property price ratio and is the best choice of the aquatic feed processing industry. The main advantages of twin extruder described as follows: Twin-screw process mandatory delivery and self-cleaning feature, making the material stay in the barrel for a short time and uniformity As two screws knead and rub each other, extruder enables material mixed and ripened more fully in lower energy consumption. The whole ripening degree can reach more than 95 percent, water stability last for 24 hours The biggest characteristics is that it can mix all kinds of raw materials regardless of its formation. This will also enable fish farmers use a wider range of ingredients

Conclusion
The production of aquafeed is the fastest growing sector in the global feed industry. Although a large amount of aquatic feed is still produced by conventional pelleting technology, extrusion is being utilized to a larger extent because it has several advantages over pelleting. So, pelleting or extrusion? Its according to various factors that discussed above. More InforMatIon:
Website: www.pellet-machine.net

Twin-screw extrusion is ideal for aquafeed

According to the operation methods, extrusion equipment generally falls into two categories: single-screw extruders and twin-screw extruders. Producing small pellet aquafeed by single-

36 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | May-June 2013

Die and roll re-working machines

O&J HJTRYK A/S endeavours to be a powerful, vigorous and energetic company. With our customers needs and the immediate environment as our point of departure, we want to be a trendsetter in our core area of business - Mechanical Engineering - Re-working of Dies and Rollers for the manufacture of Feedstus and Biopellets, as well as the sale and delivery of wearing parts in connection with Roller Re-working - as well as to remain open to new initiatives and business opportunities. O&J HJTRYK A/S has drawn up a strategy plan setting out guidelines for how we as an organisation must conduct and develop ourselves in order to make our mark, not just in the present, but also in the future. O&J HJTRYK A/S must achieve success by adapting to the conditions of the market more quickly and eciently than our competitors. As a service organisation we must, in relation to our customers, attach great importance to our own vitality and eciency by constantly living up to the ever-growing demands made on the services we provide.

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Phone: +45 75 14 22 55 Fax: +45 82 28 91 41 mail: info@oj-hojtryk.dk O&J Hjtryk A/S rnevej 1, DK-6705 Esbjerg CVR.: 73 66 86 11

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