How to Apply Cutting-edge Technology in Pea Starch Processing Industry?

Pea is native to Southern Europe and the Mediterranean coast. As one of the most important food legumes, pea is widely consumed as grain, vegetable, animal feed and pharmaceutical material. Peas are rich in starch, protein, vitamins, and minerals. 
Myande pea starch processing line is designed for processing pea into starch, fiber and gluten. Pea starch as a high-grade food has much higher nutritious and commercial value than corn starch. The fiber, as a by-product, is widely used not only as animal feed but also as valuable raw material for producing human dietary fiber through fine grinding process. Protein, the other bi-product, falls into “complete protein” category and contains 18 kinds of essential amino acids. Pea protein does not contain cholesterol and is thus generally considered healthier than animal protein. 
Myande Pea starch processing line consists of the following sections: cleaning, steeping, grinding, coarse fiber extraction, separation of gluten from starch, fine fiber extraction, starch concentration & refining, starch dewatering, starch drying, and by-product recovery, etc.

Pea Starch

Comparison of Common Gluten Dewatering Methods & Equipment in Corn Starch Manufacture Industry

In recent years, corn starch industry has maintained steady growth rate and corn starch processing technology has matured and stabilized. However, protein dewatering process and equipment used tend to vary from case to case.

In corn wet milling process, after extraction of germ and fiber, centrifugal separators are normally used for separation of gluten from starch, yielding thin gluten liquid of 15-25g/l density. This in turn is thickened by gluten thickener (GT) to obtain thick gluten liquid of 80~110g/l density. Thick gluten liquid needs to be further dewatered and dried to yield final commercial gluten powder. Currently, the rotary vacuum filter (RVF) and plate and frame filter press are widely used for this application. Another alternative, tried by some processers, is the decanter centrifuge. The following part of this paper is a brief comparison between these common protein dewatering methods and related equipment.

1. Rotary Vacuum Filter (RVF)

RVF currently represents the mainstream gluten dewatering equipment for maximum separation of insoluble gluten from water.

Rotary Vacuum Filter Structure

This process is preferable for the features below:

● Long-time continuous operation mode.

● High automation level leading to simplified operation procedure, reduced human interference in the operation process, and reduced labor cost requirement.

● Clean production environment as the complete dewatering process takes place inside the enclosed equipment chamber.

Nevertheless, the RVF is not free from disadvantages. Moisture content of the discharged material moisture is relatively higher at 58%~60% and power consumption is comparatively higher.

2. Plate and Frame Filter Press

The plate and frame filter press came into use earlier than rotary vacuum filter and is currently still used in some starch factory for gluten dewatering process.

The most obvious advantages of plate and frame filter press is the relatively lower moisture content in the discharged material at 50%~55% and lower power consumption.

Plate and Frame Filter Press

The negative side of plate and frame filter press is:

● Incapable of continuous operation as it relies on pressure, which needs to be maintained for some time, to remove water from protein. The solution is to use multiple units in parallel.

● Intense work load for the operator for moving plates apart and cleaning the cloth. Although mechanical plate parting devices have been tried, human interference in this process is still required.

● Undesirable working environment due to scattering of protein particles on the operation platform.

3. Decanter Centrifuge

About 10 years ago, some corn starch processors started experiment with decanters with little success. In recently years, with the progress of technology, decanters are again used for protein dewatering.

Decanter Centrifuge Structure

The decanter centrifuge has the following advantages:

● Smaller operation space requirement than RVF and plate & frame filter.

● Capability of continuous operation.

● High level of automation and lower labor intensity.

● Clean and hygienic operation without pollution caused by scattering of protein and acid gas.

On the other hand, decanter dewatering application requires addition of chemicals into the thick gluten liquid. There is so far little sure evidence for its watering effect even though some manufacturers assure that the moisture content of the discharged material will be at 55~58%.

Conclusion: From the above comparison, it can be concluded that each of these three methods has pros and cons. The choice depends on comprehensive consideration of various factors that include availability of workshop space, initial investment, cost of steam, electricity and labor, cost of consumables, operation environment, and user-friendliness. Currently, most corn starch processors in China opt for RVF for this application.

Myande Participated in the 11th International Starch Exhibition in Shanghai

From June 21 to 23, 2016, the 11th International Starch and Starch Derivatives Conference was held in Shanghai International Expo Center. More than 3,500 companies from all around the world participated in the exhibition. Myande exhibited some core starch processing equipment, including centrifugal separator, impact mill and screw press.

Sponsored by China Starch Industry Association, this exhibition is generally recognized as a major international event in starch processing industry. During the exhibition, Myande introduced to potential customers technical performance and advantages of its complete range of starch processing equipment by means of prototype machines, brochures and multimedia visual aids. In addition, Myande team had ample technical communication with current and potential buyers on various topics relating to starch processing technology, equipment, and engineering, such as energy-saving evaporation, and sweetener processing.

Myande Elected as China Starch Industry Association Executive Director

The 8th General Assembly of China Starch Industry Association was successfully held in Shanghai Everbright Convention & Exhibition Center on 19th June, 2016. Myande was elected as the Executive Director. Myande vice-chairman Mr. Wang Mu gave a speech at the opening ceremony. Mr. Liang Yong, vice general manager of Myande’s Starch Engineering Division, delivered a speech entitled “Innovative Equipment Manufacturing Boosting Industry Upgrading” on 20th, June.

Focusing on environmental protection, and following the strategy of sustainable development, Myande is committed to providing its customers with safe, reliable and energy saving equipment in the starch professional field featuring maximal utilization of steam. Corn starch process involves closed thermal recycling process is which steam as heat source is applied for drying starch, germ, fiber and gluten. Myande corn starch technology enables corn starch processors to recycle hot exhaust air and condensate water and thereby achieves more effective and economical utilization of energy. The emission of waste vapor and water is thus reduced to the minimum. Benefits of this technology include savings on energy and water and reduced impact on the environment.

What is Full Automatic MIIM Control System?

On January 4, 2016, Myande and China Huaye Group Company signed a contract by which Myande supplied Shandong Fukuan biological Engineering Co a full automatic DCS control system to be incorporated in a corn starch processing line with capacity of 300,000 ton per year. During the tender of this automatic control system project, the owners put forward high requirements on the automatic control system of all the production line. They hope that the automation and unattended operation can be realized during the production.
Myande automatic control system designing team consists of over 30 engineers and have designed and supplied more than 200 automatic control systems for starch, oils & fats, fermentation, and energy saving & evaporation projects. Myande’s typically fully automatic MIIM control system effectively improves control efficiency with some unique features.

1. High combination of automation and process design
There is a widely recognized principle in starch industry that automation design team without sufficient understanding of starch processing technology is not in a good position to come up with effective automatic control systems for starch processing industry. Myande Group is a professional supplier of machinery & engineering services in starch, vegetable oil, and fermentation industries with strong product R&D capability and process design capability. So the control plan of each complete project is determined after many exchanges and communication between automation engineers and process engineers. Automation engineers typically participate in the process design, site installation, commissioning and other aspects of the project. Automation is a combination of technology and process, which is the essential difference of Myande automation team and general automation company.

2. Comprehensive technical ability
Myande automatic control system service covers low voltage system, PLC system, DCS system, electrical installation, electrical and automatic control system, and on-site commissioning. The team provides a full range of electrical and automation solutions for the customer. The biggest benefits for our customers include in reduced cost of communication between the suppliers of low voltage electrical components and DCS control system, shortened delivery time, and improved quality of the whole project.

3. Combination of automation and 3D design
In electrical and automation engineering, the statistics of material is a very important part. If statistic is not exact, it will result in buying more material, increasing costs and waste. In addition, it will also cause extension of construction period due to the lack of material. Myande has a professional 3D design team and typically use 3D design to resolve this problem perfectly. During the installation design, this team will model the workshop in accordance with 1: 1 proportion. In the 3D drawing, each equipment and instruments, valves can be positioned and electrical and instrument trays also will be described in detail, so as to avoid the interference between the tray and the pipeline, and also have a precise statistic material specifications and quantity of cable, cable tray and other installation materials in the generated list of materials.

4. Combination of automation and equipment
Myande has a strong mechanical design and manufacturing capacity that can provide customers with most major starch production equipment, such as, centrifugal separator, pin mill, screw press, tube bundle dryer and starch dry system, etc. The company will have all the staff to carry out the relevant training of mechanical equipment so that automation engineers can know how to utilize automation control technology to maintain equipment safety and continuous running.

5. Guarantee of reliable brand 
Myande insists on using internationally renowned brands and has entered into strategic cooperation agreements with many internationally renowned brands, such as, SIEMENS, Schneider, ABB, Danforth, E+H, Emerson, EBRO, ARI, SPIRAXSARCO, etc. By using reliable parts and components, Myande is in a good position to guarantee safety, reliability and stability of the electrical automation system.

6. Project implementation capability
All projects will have a standard project management process. After the plan of project implementation is made, relevant professional person will be responsible for each node of project implementation. At the same time, there are corresponding records, feedback about every step of the project, which can ensure timely delivery of the project with high quality.

7. Perfect after-sale service system
At present, the automatic maintenance of starch production enterprises is not particularly strong, so after-sale service is very important. At the beginning of the establishment, Myande always holds on to the purpose of “Move forward with customers”. Excellent after-sale service is Myande's solemn commitment to customers. The automation team relies on the advantages of Myande Group in order to supply durable and lifelong after-sale services for customers.

What is the latest application of starch sugar processing technology?

Starch sugars refer to starch sweeteners processed from grain and other starch-containing tuber crops through acid method, acid enzymatic method or enzymatic method. Starch sugars include maltose, glucose and fructose syrup, etc. Starch sugar processing is one important part of agricultural product processing industry as well as a corner stone of starch deep process industry. Starch sugars have wide applications and huge market demanded and widely used food, pharmaceutical, paper making and many other industries.

Myande Starch Sugar Technology

After many years of R&D and market application, Myande starch sugar technology has formed a complete set of product design line. According to customer’s requirement of different capacity and finished product, Myande provide customized design to satisfied customer’s demands. Myande’s products design line and full set of engineering services includes: Liquid Glucose, Crystalline Dextrose, Maltose Syrup, Maltodextrin, Fructose Syrup, etc.

Myande has excellent process design team and keep improving the technological requirements, after many times discussions and optimization, Myande process design team strive to provide customers with the best processing route, the liquefaction and saccharification, filtration, desalination, evaporation and concentration has adopted international advanced technology and equipment, and according to customer’s budget and requirement to provide a variety of options, lower the customer’s investment and operation costs.

Myande without exception uses advanced 3D design software and provide 3D design for the whole project at the same time to real reflect each equipment layout and civil structure, avoiding the conflict between equipment and civil, design more accurate and avoid installation materials waste. The 3D design ensures more intuitive and more humanization to make the customer to learn about every detail of the engineering before the project implementation.

Myande has a powerful automatic control design capabilities, can provide customers with semi-automatic and fully automatic control scheme. In the process of starch sugar production, the control system can fully monitor the material parameters and production status of the whole production system, the operation interface is intuitive and convenient control, timely warning and adjust the operation status of the production line, and finally solve the problem of the final product quality is not stable, high consumption during production and rely on the artificial technical proficiency, etc.

Myande has a strong manufacturing capability and perfect quality management system, manufacturing center adhering to the fine manufacturing concept and strict requirement for the product quality, provide the customers with high-quality, safety and reliable equipment.

Myande supply the customer with starch sugar turn-key project, provide all equipment, automation control system, non-standard tank material, guidance the manufacturing of non-standard tank and equipment installation, staff training and commissioning. Myande has a rich turn-key project experience in starch engineering, starch sugar engineering and edible oil engineering. Myande is fully responsible for the project, from project design to project commissioning, and have avoid the inconvenience of purchasing equipment from difference parties and equipment installation chaos by difference parties, providing customers with high-quality and relaxing project implementation experience.

Myande has an efficient and professional after-sales service system to ensure the fastest feedback to the customers.

Myande Starch Sugar Technology

Latest Application of Myande Starch Sugar Syrup Evaporation and Concentration Technology

Multi-effect Falling Film Evaporator

Myande’s continuous low-temperature evaporation and concentration for syrup is characterized by high heat transfer efficiency, short heating time of materials and low cost. Myande evaporator is equipped with steam jet pumps so that it makes full use of secondary steam from the liquefaction section to reduce the steam consumption. Besides, its energy saving effect and consumption reduction is outstanding. At the same time, it ensures that materials keep low temperature during the evaporation process to avoid affecting the syrup quality.

Multi-effect Falling Film Evaporator

MVR Evaporation and Concentration System

MVR evaporator is a new efficient and energy-saving evaporation and concentration system. The secondary steam from the evaporator can adopt adiabatic compression of the compressor to increase its temperature and pressure. This steam then enters the heating chamber as the heating steam to recycle latent heat of the secondary steam. If the system works normally without the discharge of secondary steam, it will be necessary to add a little steam which can save energy and reduce cost.

Myande has rich experience in the in the design and construction of evaporation and concentration system. According to different products and capacities, various projects will be designed. In accordance with the capacity, the evaporation can be calculated accurately. The specialized 3-D design personnel can provide a strong guarantee for the accurate construction of the project. What’s more, evaporation equipment is diverse, including falling film evaporator and MVR system. Customers have a variety of options to meet their needs.

MVR Evaporation and Concentration System

Ion Exchange Column

In general, after the filtration section, insoluble impurities and organic impurities in water can be removed from the syrup. But there are also many soluble inorganic impurities in water, small-molecule soluble protein, colored impurities, as well as impurities of bad taste and odor. These impurities mainly exist in the form of cations and anions.

Ion exchange column uses ion exchange resin to adsorb mineral ions, pigments and proteins from the syrup for the purpose of refining the syrup and reducing the conductivity. It’s called the desalination of syrup. Cationic exchange column replaces cationic impurities（Ca2+,Mg2+ and Na+）and a little protein with H+. And then anionic exchange column uses OH- instead of anionic impurities（CL-,SO42- and NO3-）and colored impurities. By the mixed bed, impurities of bad taste and odor can be removed.

RSO3H+NaCl →     RSO3Na+HCl

ROH+NaCl→    RCl+NaOH

When the ion exchange resin is used for a long time, the capacity will decrease. Cationic exchange resin can use hydrochloric acid and anionic exchange resin also uses sodium hydroxide to regenerate and recover the ability of iron exchange.

During the production of F55 fructose, the ion exchange system is divided into three parts, including the glucose syrup ion exchange, isomeric F42 syrup ion exchange and F55 syrup mixed-bed refinery.

While working, the syrup goes through the first pair of cationic and anionic beds, which is called the first desalination. And then it enters the second pair of beds, which is called the secondary desalination. The regenerated resin will enter the section of secondary desalination firstly and then goes into the first one in order to make full use of the resin and keep syrup quality.

According to the customers’ needs and process, it’s necessary to make the reasonable design and precise 3D modeling to keep the desalination ability of ion exchange column so as to meet the production needs. Adopting good resin can remove the ion and pigment from the syrup effectively in order to keep the product quality and appearance. At the same time, the fully automatic ion exchange control system can be customized for the customers to realize the automatic control of the feeding, switching, cleaning and regeneration of the ion exchange system. The full chamber floating bed and normal fixed bed of ion exchange system can be chosen according to the product plan. 

Fructose Syrup Isomerization Column

Isomerization column is a key equipment for the production of F42 and F55 fructose syrup. Isomerization refers to the process whereby glucose converts into fructose syrup with 42% of fructose content by the effect of immobilized isomerase. This system adopts the imported immobilized isomerase which is characterized as high activity, high strength and long service life. Myande adopts advanced isomerization process design to ensure the smooth running of the temperature and flow, which makes for the product stability and prolonging the service life of immobilized isomerase. Combined with automatic control system, it can realize the automatic control of the feeding, switching and cleaning. When the activity starts decreasing, it’s necessary to adjust in time to ensure the stability of product quality.

Fructose Syrup Isomerization Column

Fructose Syrup Chromatographic Separation

Chromatographic separation is a very effective way to separate the mixture. The absorbability of diverse components is different on the stationary phase surface. So it can realize the separation because all the components move with mobile phase at different speeds when mobile phase flows.

Chromatographic separation is mainly used in the production of F55 fructose. After the isomerization section, a part of glucose of the fructose syrup is isomerized as the fructose molecule. It’s called F42 fructose. By the evaporator, the concentration of dry matter is reduced to 60% and then it enters the chromatographic separation system.

The purpose of chromatographic separation is to separate the F42 fructose syrup into two parts:

1.      Recyclable extraction phase with high content of fructose -- Used in the mixture of F55.

2.      Recyclable residual phase with high content of glucose -- Return to the glucose ion separation section.

Calcium resins are commonly used in the production of fructose. Different absorbability of resins to glucose and fructose can elute different components. Fructose molecule can combine with Ca2+ to be absorbed by resin ion, which will be the component of the longest residence time. In addition, due to particularity of internal structure, glucose cannot combine with Ca2+. So glucose accounts for a minimum proportion of all the absorbed components. During the elution, speed of glucose molecule is slower between them. So they can be separated.

Myande chromatographic separation system adopts advanced simulated moving bed technology to realize the continuous separation operation. Because of the advanced process design, it will carry out the degassing of syrup and desalinated water before the separation of syrup in order to reduce the damage to chromatographic resin and prolong the service life. Using the imported separation resin can ensure separation effect and service life. Finally, the automatic control enables the staff to be more convenient and quick to adjust the working status of the chromatographic separation system.