Buhler India improves pulses yield, increases spice quality

Pulses are an important protein source for persons with a vegetarian lifestyle. In India, they are consumed in the form of a dish called dal.

Spices and the spice trade have been part of human culture from time immemorial. Today, state-of-the-art Buhler technology allows spices and pulses to be processed into a considerably higher quality than was the case in the age of the big spice roads. This has been made possible, among other things, by the cleaning, grading, color sorting, and processing systems that Buhler has developed.

The benefits of Buhler technology start at an early stage: During raw material storage and precleaning, the efficient exhaust systems of Buhler equipment keep installations dust-free, and therefore also the product. Spices graded uniformly according to size and color sell better, achieving higher prices in the export markets. Processors can benefit from these advantages not only in connection with pulses and spices. The same classifying and sorting systems are also applied by Buhler in an adapted form for processing sesame, safflower, niger, and sunflower seeds.

Whether for pulses, spices, or seeds, one thing always remains the same: Most importers demand high-quality, cleaned products with a purity degree of 99.92 to 99.98 percent - a task that sophisticated Buhler systems excel at. They are capable of grading such materials according to size, weight, shape, and - thanks to the application of high-resolution digital cameras

- color.

Sophisticated hulling process

Buhler process know-how has evolved in the course of almost 150 years. With this technological expertise and the knowledge of local needs, the Buhler engineers in Bangalore have been able to solve those problems which to date have given many Indian processors a headache. Pulses are considered trickier to process than rice. This is because their seed coat is firmly attached to the cotyledons due to the high lignin and gum content lodged between the seed coat and the cotyledons.

Generally, the processing of pulses involves two operations. Pulses must be pretreated to enable the seed coat to be detached from the cotyledons. Dehulled and split, they are then used for producing dal. Hulling and splitting of the pulses is facilitated by alternately wetting and drying the material. To hull the grains completely, a large number of abrasive forces are applied, which however results in a higher loss in the form of brokens and fines.

Six percent higher yield

The yield of accept product that is, splits or dal in the

traditional process is around 67 percent. The specialists at Buhler succeeded in boosting it in dal mills to about 73 percent. On the one hand, this is achieved by reducing the fines content. On the other hand, operation without dust generation also increases productivity. Another crucial factor for achieving optimal plant utilization is automatic control, which reduces human errors and makes the process more transparent. These improvements cut the production costs per ton, allowing Buhler customers to offer their high-quality products at a more

competitive price on first market entry.

The process expertise of Buhler advances the overall process. For example, Buhler India has introduced the use of bulk storage techniques at the facilities of pulses processors. Proper tempering and conditioning make processing easier. Sometimes, such simplifications also call for customized solutions. One example of this are the multi-seed processing

plants that Buhler has especially developed for India. Indian spice producers have long wished to process smaller quantities of different seeds with high flexibility to give consideration to seasonal variations or to cater to their need for changing their product mix more frequently.

This gave birth to the idea of grouping materials of similar size. The Buhler multi-seed processing plants clean, classify, and sort different products by merely changing the machine parameters.

A complete pulse processing plant

Uttara Foods & Feeds Pvt. Limited is a key customer of Buhler in the field of animal feed manufacture. Year after year, the company has expanded its poultry feed production capacity with competent support from Buhler India.

When they decided some eighteen months ago to diversify into the area of vegetable proteins, they had several options, one of them the processing of pulses.

Venkateshwara Rao, the Managing Director of Uttara Foods & Feeds Pvt. Ltd., had a state-of-the-art process in mind for this purpose. Being a visionary, he believed that the plant had to be designed to produce a far superior pulses quality than was currently available in the marketplace.

Since Buhler had already become widely known among pulses processors as a competent plant supplier with substantial process know-how, Uttara also opted for Buhler. The high-tech plant was designed, supplied, and commissioned within one year. It processes yellow lentils and black gram at four metric tons per hour, making it Indias biggest pres-ent-day plant

for processing pulses.

The installation combines traditional equipment with advanced process technology. Some locally manufactured production machines had to be adjusted to the new plant requirements, for example the roller mills and the polishers. Ultimately, the key differentiators leading to the award of the contract to Buhler were superior process technology, complete engineering and project management, and innovative plant automation.

Buhler also supplied the control system for the entire plant. It takes care of all the complexities involved in the processing of a wide variety of products, including the sequence control of the equipment. The required quality was achieved on the very first day of production. Within a month of successful production, Uttara started competing with the leading brands in Western India. Today, Uttara is known among other processors and of course also consumers - for its high quality.

India needs more pulses

Pulses production in India should grow by 500,000 metric tons annually. That is what the World Food and Agricul-tural Organization (WFAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) believe necessary. The WFAO and the WHO recommend a daily availability of 80 grams of pulses per person.

Reality is a far cry from this recommended quantity: Over the years, per-capita consumption of pulses in India has declined steadily from about 70 grams a day in the early sixties to about 34 grams a day in 2002. The reason: a surging population and stagnant production of pulses.

In general, pulses are grown in one of the two seasons - the warm rainy period from May to October or the cool and dry season from November to April.

Buhler is a global Technology Group and a system partner in the supply of plant and equipment and process know-how in the fields of Food Processing, Chemical Process Engineering, and Die Casting, with a payroll of about 6100 worldwide.

For more information, please contact:

https://edir.bulk-online.com/profile...witzerland.htm

https://edir.bulk-online.com/profile...ler-india-.htm ■