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PCC investigates animal feed pellets

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26 oktober 2020

Over 600.000 million metric tons of pelleted animal feeds are produced every year. These pelleted feeds contain edible crops like corn, wheat and soybean meal. But what happens when we replace these crops with fibrous residual products from agri-food and biofuel industries, products like beet pulp and wheat bran?

What is the effect on the pellet characteristics such as hardness and pellet durability? How can we optimize the industrial production processes like steam conditioning and pelletizing for optimal pellet binding? These questions are part of the Pelleting in Circular Agriculture project, a research project shared between the departments of Animal Nutrition and Physical Chemistry and Soft Matter. Within the project we combine physicochemical characterization of feed mash together with 3D analysis of the pellet microstructures, to investigate what characteristics are required to bind feed mash into a compact pellet. 

Read more about the project on: https://www.c2w.nl/artikelen/chemie-achtergrond/puike-pellets