INTEGRATED GRAIN MILLING PLANT FOR PRODUCTION OF CORN FLOUR, FERMENTED CORN STARCH, BEANS FLOUR AND SOYA BEANS FLOUR
Introduction:
Fermented corn starch, also called Pap is a popular breakfast meal for adults and weaning formular for babies. Locally, it is called Ogi in Yoruba; Akamu in Igbo, and Koko in Ghana, Benin and Togo. Traditionally, corn is processed into Pap by a series of unit operations which include fermentation, grinding, sieving and dewatering, to form a wet cake.
The wet cake is stored under water or in a refrigerator between the time it is produced and when it is cooked to pap for consumption. Unfortunately wet cake has a very short shelve life. Hence, the scope of processing and marketing of fermented wet corn starch is limited to village and small towns.
However, in the face of increasing urbanization, rapid population growth, and high mobility among the active population, a big supply/demand gap that needs to the bridged has been created. The good thing is that innovation in technology has lead to the development of a process for producing dried fermented corn starch that can be stored for a longer period and can be marketed widely to meet the needs of consumers.
Similarly, dehulled and wet milled beans is used to try Akara (beans cake), a very popular food usually eaten with Pap or bread. It is also used for making moi-moi, another popular food usually eaten with rice or bread in West-Africa.
Traditionally beans used for Akara (Beans cake) and moi-moi is processed into a wet puree before use. It has a very short shelve life and therefore, has to be cooked within a short time to avoid quality deterioration. However, current realities favour the processing of beans into flour that can be packaged and distributed widely to consumers.
Furthermore, corn flour is a very popular baking flour. It is used as a thickening agent in preparation of soups, stews and other gourmet cooking. It is also used to stretch wheat flour when baking biscuits or other baked products. Currently it is sold widely in Nigeria and West-Africa.
Soya beans is considered to be nutritionally rich. Hence, its popularly added to infant foods. Current awareness supports industrial processing and packaging of Soya beans flour that can be bought off-the shelve by consumers.
2. Raw Materials: Raw materials for this integrated grain milling plant are corn (maize), beans (cowpea) and soya beans. These raw food items are abundant in West-Africa sub-return.
3. Manufacturing Technology
Equipment:
We, at N.C. Gilbert Dev. Co. Ltd; can supply, install, and commission a complete set of equipment for this plant. The plant can be configured to process up to10 tons/day input depending on the customer’s preference.
The complete set of equipment are:
(a) Cleaner /Aspirator
The raw materials as received for processing (corn, beans, soya beans) contains impurities such as plant stalks, sand and dirt. It is important, therefore, to remove all these foreign materials before processing to avoid contaminating the end products.
Our plant includes a vibrating sieve complete with aspirator fan, and screens with different apertures. In operation, the aspirator sucks off the light material and dust from the grains feed, while the combined effect of vibration of the screen deck and the arrangement of the screens with different apertures separates other foreign materials from the grain. The cleaner is of different sizes to meet different plant capacities.
(b) Dehuller/Degerminator
Corn Kernel, beans and soya beans has an outer layer (hull) and germ that has to be peeled off during processing.
Our dehuller/degerminator is designed to dehull and degerm grains efficiently. The main mechanism for this machine is a shaft that rotates inside a perforated basket; a screw conveyor that feeds materials from the hopper Into the dehulling chamber and an aspirator fan positioned to suck-off pecked hulls and germs from the whole grain. The whole system in powered by an electric motor.
In operation, the material to be dehulled is dumped into the hopper from where a screw feeder transports the material continuously into the dehulling chamber. The rubbing action of the specially designed rotating shaft against the materials inside the basket peels the hulls and germs and pushes the materials out though the outlet.
Some of the peels falls through the screen while the others are discharged with the grain at the machine outlet. An aspirator fan sucks the peels off and discharges them through a cyclone separator. Our dehuller/degermination comes in different capacities to meet the customer specification.
c. Dehydrator
The dehulled /degerminated grain to be processed into flour are first blanched in hot water before dehydrating to a moisture content of less than 10% before milling dehulled corn meant for processing into fermented corn starch is soaked in water to allow fermentation to take place.
During the drying process, hot air from a blower, at a temperature of 70100% is forced through the gains in a silo that includes an urger that is used for loading and agitation of the grains.
We supply dehydrator of up to 1 ton capacity per batch, depending on the specification of the plant. The dehydrator can be made in stainless steel or carbon steel for all parts in contact with material.
d. Flour Grinding Mill
Dried materials are pulverized into a very fine flour in our two stage grinding process.
For the first stage, we supply a specially designed hammer mill complete with cyclone separator and dust filter. The whole grain is ground rapidly by the impact of rotating hammers and pushed out through the sizing screens, to the cyclone separator where the material is separated from the conveying air current.
There are various capacities of our pulverizing mill from 300kg/her to 2 tone/hr. also our pulverizers are made in stainless steel for all parts in contact with material.
e. Flour Sifter
The ground flour discharged from the primary grinding mill usually contains coarse fraction. It is, therefore, necessary to pass the material through a sieving process.
Our sieving machine is comprised of a sieving deck with screen mesh of the desired aperture. The sieve deck is mounted on springs. The assembly is vibrated by an electric motor driven cam.
During operation, material from a hopper is fed continuously by a screw conveyor into the top of the screen on the vibrating sieve. A combination of the effect of vibration and the screen aperture separates the fine flour from the oversize material fraction. The two fractions pass through different spouts into collecting bins. The oversize is next fed to the secondary grinding machine for regrinding, while the flour fraction is taken to the packaging section.
We supply sifters made with stainless steel for all parts in contact with materials, and with varied capacities.
f. Secondary Grinding Machine
The secondary grinding machine pulverizes the oversize particles of grains from the sifter into fine flour ready for packaging.
Our secondary grinding machine consist of a rigid rotating hammer that is made to grind against a stationary hammer in a chamber enclosed by a sizing screen.
We supply various capacities of this type of mill to meet plant specification i.e 50kg/hr to 500kg/hr. the construction is such that all parts in contact with materials are made of stainless steel.
g. Packaging Machine
The final flour is packaged in pouches of different sizes from 1kg to 10kg to meet market demands.
We supply automatic filling and bag closing machine to meet customer specification.
h. Auxiliary Equipment
(a) Boiler
The dehydration process requires pre-heated air. Also blanching requires pre-heating water in a tank. The heating required in these processes is cost effectively delivered by steam from a boiler.
We supply biomass fired baby broiler of between 0.5ton /hr to 1 ton/hr.
(b) Other Equipment:
Depending on plant capacity and the customer preference, the plant may be engineered to include: stainless steel soaking and blanching tanks Elevator, screw conveyor, sorting tables and transportation bin.
