Enhancement of Poultry Feed Product Homogeneity

Abstract

WADI Company is formed of group of different factories dealing with agriculture business industries since started on 1984. One of the factories, located in Sadat city focused on producing small granules that contains Mono-Calcium Phosphate (MCP) as a main ingredient for poultry industry which is suitable for providing poultry with calcium and phosphorus that promotes forming hard backbone and skeleton. Production of Mono-Calcium Phosphate (MCP) pass through several sequential processes using many equipment like Mixer, Dryer, Cooler, Crasher, Vibrator and other components. After testing several samples of the final product, it was found that the ratios and distribution of the Calcium and Phosphor components in the samples are not homogeneous and deviate from the standard ratios. The objective of this project is focused on improvement of the homogeneity and distribution of the calcium and phosphor ingredients in the final product by studying all parameters and factors that may create the fluctuation of their percentages. There are many factors that may affect the homogeneity of the final product such as the mixing system, the moisture percentage. So, many tests are conducted on samples taken in each stage of manufacturing processes, namely after mixing stages, after granulator and after drying processes. The testing results of samples taken at the end of the mixing process showed percentage fluctuation and non-homogeneous distribution while after drying process some of samples which contains low moisture contents showed homogeneous distribution of ingredients. When more samples of low moisture were tested, it showed better homogeneity which confirm that the drying process is the main parameter of fluctuation of Phosphorus and Calcium percentages in the final product. The improvement of the drying process was carried out by increasing the retention time of the product inside the dryer and decreasing the speed of the dryer by 15% from 2.9 to 2.46 RPM which achieved improvement in the homogeneity in the final product.