Changes In Feed Composition Research Articles

Reduced bone resorption by intake of dietary vitamin D and K from tailor-made Atlantic salmon: A randomized intervention trial.

Suboptimal vitamin D status is common among humans, and might increase bone resorption with subsequent negative effects on bone health. Fatty fish, including Atlantic salmon, is an important dietary vitamin D source. However, due to a considerable change in fish feed composition, the contribution of vitamin D from salmon fillet has been reduced. The main objective was to investigate if intake of vitamin D3 enriched salmon or vitamin D3 tablets decreased bone biomarkers (urinary N-telopeptides, deoxypyridinoline, serum bone-specific alkaline phosphatase, and osteocalcin) compared to a low vitamin D3 intake. The 122 healthy postmenopausal women included in this 12 weeks intervention trial were randomized into four groups: three salmon groups (150 grams/two times/week) and one tablet group (800 IU vitamin D and 1000 mg calcium/day). The salmon groups also received calcium supplements. The salmon had three different vitamin D3/vitamin K1 combinations: high D3+high K1, low D3+high K1, or high D3+low K1. Increased intake of salmon containing high levels of vitamin D3 (0.35-0.38 mg/kg/fillet) and supplements with the same weekly contribution had a positive influence on bone health as measured by bone biomarkers in postmenopausal women. Consequently, an increased level of vitamin D3 at least to original level in feed for salmonids will contribute to an improved vitamin D3 status and may improve human bone health.

Microwave-enhanced methane combined reforming by CO2 and H2O into syngas production on biomass-derived char

Methane reforming by CO2 and H2O is performed in this study, using the char derived from biomass as catalyst. The catalytic effect of bio-char on CH4 reforming is examined by changing feed composition, reforming temperature and heating method. At an appropriate H2O/CO2 ratio, combined reforming achieves higher CH4 conversion at the same temperature than dry reforming, and it also brings about an increase in the H2/CO ratio of syngas production. The results indicates that synergetic reaction of CH4–H2O and CH4–CO2 can be reached in combined reforming at the temperature of 800–1000°C. Microwave heating presents a promising method to enhance the reforming reaction. Bio-char exhibits better performance for combined reforming, because it optimizes the competition between carbon deposition and carbon consumption. This is evidenced by less equivalent carbon consumption and the slower deterioration of porous properties. Carbon deposition and carbon consumption from the catalyst contribute to the deactivation of bio-char.

Nonsquare multivariable non-minimal state space-proportional integral plus (NMSS-PIP) control for atmospheric crude oil distillation column

The goal of this paper is to show implementation of non-minimal state space (NMSS) representation with proportional-integral-plus (PIP) controller for industrial crude distillation column. The control structure was designed and developed for MIMO nonsquare configuration. Weighting matrices of LQ optimal PIP control structure were achieved based on ITAE criteria for the column. The control performance of PIP control was compared with conventional PI control with different scenarios. The results show that PIP control handles the process interactions truly in order to utilize all variables simultaneously. In feed composition change scenario, the PIP control was stable and behaved robustly while the PI control had some difficulties. Furthermore, the proposed control structure indicates efficient performance for both disturbance rejection and set point tracking.

Energy-Saving Design and Control of a Methyl Methacrylate Separation Process

An alternative design for the separation of a mixture including methyl methacrylate, methanol, and water is investigated as compared to a previous design using the same process units. In this alternative design, top and bottom products of the distillation column are designed to be at unstable and stable nodes, respectively. Thus, significant savings in the steam cost (16.3%) can be realized as opposed to the previous design of placing the bottom product at a saddle point. Another benefit is that the loss of methyl methacrylate product through the water outlet stream is also less than that of the previous design. This represents another 9.6% savings of the operating cost for this alternative design. Furthermore, an overall control structure for this alternative design is also devised based on a novel way of using open-loop and closed-loop sensitivity tests. By the control of a temperature difference at two trays of the distillation column and another single-tray temperature at the stripper, both MMA and water products can be maintained at high purities despite large variations in feed flow rate and feed composition changes.

Potential environmental benefits of prospective genetic changes in broiler traits

A system approach-based Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework, combined with a simple mechanistic model of bird energy balance was used to predict the potential effects of 15 y prospective broiler breeding on the environmental impacts of the standard UK broiler production system. The year 2014 Ross 308 genotype was used as a baseline, and a future scenario was specified from rates of genetic improvement predicted by the industry. The scenario included changes in the traits of growth rate (reducing the time to reach a target weight 2.05 kg from 34d to 27 d), body lipid content, carcass yield, mortality and the number of chicks produced by a breeder hen. Diet composition was adjusted in order to accommodate the future nutrient requirements of the birds following the genetic change. The results showed that predicted changes in biological performance due to selective breeding could lead to reduced environmental impacts of the broiler production chain, most notably in the Eutrophication Potential (by 12%), Acidification Potential (by 10%) and Abiotic Resource Use (by 9%) and Global Warming Potential (by 9%). These reductions were mainly caused by the reduced maintenance energy requirement and thus lower feed intake, resulting from the shorter production cycle, together with the increased carcass yield. However, some environmental benefits were limited by the required changes in feed composition (e.g., increased inclusion of soy meal and vegetable oil) as a result of the changes in bird nutrient requirements. This study is the first one aiming to link the mechanistic animal modeling approach to predicted genetic changes in order to produce quantitative estimates of the future environmental impacts of broiler production. Although a more detailed understanding on the mechanisms of the potential changes in bird performance and their consequences on feeding and husbandry would be still be needed, the modeling framework produced in this study provides a starting point for predictions of the effects of prospective genetic progress.

Quantifying the consequences of nutritional strategies aimed at decreasing phosphorus excretion from pig populations: a modeling approach

There is a global imperative to reduce phosphorous (P) excretion from pig systems. In this study, a previously validated deterministic model was modified to be stochastic, in order to investigate the consequences of different management strategies on P excretion by a group of growing pigs. The model predicts P digestion, retention and excretion from feed composition and growth parameters that describe a specified pig phenotype. Stochasticity was achieved by introducing random variation in the latter. The strategies investigated were: (1) changing feed composition frequently in order to match more closely pig digestible P (digP) requirements to feed composition (phase feeding) and (2) grouping pigs into light and heavy groups and feeding each group according to the requirements of their group average BW (sorting). Phase feeding reduced P excretion as the number of feeding phases increased. The effect was most pronounced as feeding phases increased from 1 to 2, with a 7.5% decrease achieved; the increase in phases from 2 to 3 was associated with a further 2.0% reduction. Similarly, the effect was more pronounced when the feed targeted the population requirements for digP at the average BW of the first third, rather than the average requirements at the mid-point BW of each feeding sequence plan. Increasing the number of feeding phases increased the percentage of pigs that met their digP requirements during the early stages of growth and reduced the percentage of pigs that were supplied <85% of their digP requirements at any stage of their growth; the latter may have welfare implications. Sorting of pigs reduced P excretion to a lesser extent; the reduction was greater as the percentage of pigs in the light group increased from 10% to 30% (from 1.5% to 3.0% reduction, respectively). This resulted from an increase in the P excreted by the light group, accompanied by a decrease in the P excreted by the remaining pigs. Sorting increased the percentage of light pigs that met their dig P requirements, but only slightly decreased the percentage of heavy pigs that met these requirements at any point of their growth. Exactly the converse was the case as far as the percentage of pigs that were supplied <85% of their digP requirements were concerned. The developed model is flexible and can be used to investigate the effectiveness of other management strategies in reducing P excretion from groups of pigs, including precision livestock feeding.

Role of Nonlinear Effects in Benzene–Toluene–Xylene Dividing Wall Column Control System Design

Steady-state bifurcation analysis is applied to a ternary benzene–toluene–xylene (BTX) dividing wall column (DWC) to synthesize robust temperature inferential controlled variables (CVs). The coupling between the prefractionator and the main column causes steady-state multiplicity in conventional tray temperature CV loops. Using physical insights into the DWC behavior, differential tray temperature across the side-draw and double differential temperature control across the prefractionator rectification section are shown to significantly mitigate the steady-state multiplicity. Control system variants (with and without prefractionator liquid split manipulation) with alternative temperature-based CVs exhibit nonlinear dynamic phenomena of seeking an infeasible temperature/purity set point and input multiplicity induced “wrong” control action leading to a low purity steady-state transition under closed loop operation. These nonlinear dynamic phenomena correlate with the bifurcation analysis results. The recommended control structure with robust temperature inferential CVs is shown to effectively reject very large feed composition changes, including for on-target product purity operation via temperature inferential CV update. The work brings out the importance of robust CV design for effective control of the highly coupled and nonlinear ternary DWC process.

Simulation-Based Artificial Neural Network Predictive Control of BTX Dividing Wall Column

For the separation of ternary liquid mixture, use of dividing wall column is one of the nonconventional techniques in the field of liquid separation by thermal process. Benzene, toluene, and o-xylene have been selected as a ternary system for this study. As it is difficult to control the product purity directly due to delay time in the composition analyzer, temperatures of the appropriate trays were selected as the controlled variables. Reflux rate, sidestream flow rate, and reboiler heat duty were selected as manipulated variables to control sixth tray temperature of rectifying section, 11th tray temperature of the main column, and 12th tray of stripping section. Back-propagation algorithm was used as a training algorithm to tune the connection weights for the function of each neuron. The control performance of ANNPC was investigated for ±10 % load changes in feed flow rate, feed composition, and liquid split factor. The control performance was analyzed by using performance criteria indexes and performance parameters such as IAE, ITAE, ISE, ITSE, rise time, and settling time. It is observed that these performance parameters are less for ANNPC as compared to PID control. The settling time in case of PID varies from 2.77 to 4.55 h, significantly higher than that in ANNPC (0.37–0.66 h). The rise time is 0.66–1.20 h for PID and 0.03–0.27 h for ANNPC. These results indicate that ANNPC performs better than PID controller.

Avaliação da qualidade nutricional e segurança alimentar de ingredientes e rações fornecidos para suínos gestantes e leitões

The assessment of the nutritional composition and quality of feed is of fundamental importance, as feed represents a large percentage of animal production cost. Changes in feed composition can alter metabolisms, reduce digestive capacity and growth, hence affecting the production performance and profits which are more critical in smaller swine farms. In this paper we report on an evaluation of the nutritional quality [proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, fibre, calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P)] and safety [mycotoxins, moisture content (mc) and water activity (aw)] of feed ingredients and final products in pregnant swine (gilts/sows) and off-spring (piglets) from a small production farm in Southern Brazil. From the nutrition quality data obtained, feed ingredients such as soybean meal, rice meal and corn presented protein average content of 46.35%, 13.94% and 8.88%, respectively. As far as anti-nutritional factors are concerned, the urease level in the soybean meal used for swine feed production was of 0.03% (0.01 to 0.09). For the two different swine formulations analysed, the fibre values obtained were 1.74% and 2.14% for piglet and pregnancy feed, respectively. The Ca and P levels found in the two formulation samples were 0.499 &amp; 0.715% and 0.753 &amp; 0.963%, respectively. As far as the samples’ safety parameters are concerned, the average mc &amp; aw obtained were 12.30% &amp; 0.66% for corn, 9.77% &amp; 0.64 for rice meal and 12.93% &amp; 0.67% for soybean meal. In addition to this, the moisture levels found were high enough for fungi proliferation and mycotoxin production. 10% of samples showed some contamination by mycotoxins (AFLs and ZON). OTA and EST were not found in any of the tests performed (LOD: 1; LOQ: 2µg/kg). Our results demonstrated that small farms are able to produce animal feed within the recommended nutritional standards. However, the implementation of quality assurance practices, to prevent nutritional fluctuations are necessary and can contribute to improving the production process and then enhancing its profitability.

Physicochemical, Phytochemical and Nutrimental Impact of Fortified Cereal Based Extrudate Snacks: Effect of Jackfruit Seed Flour Addition and Extrusion Cooking

Aim of present study was to estimate quantitative changes in nutrimental, physicochemical and phytochemical properties of rice-jackfruit seed flour blend extrudates. Rice-jackfruit seed flour blend was prepared at 70:30 proportions and was subjected to extrusion cooking. Effect of barrel temperature (140-180°C) and screw speed (100-300 rpm) on nutrimental, physicochemical (expansion, density, WSI, WAI and hardness) and phytochemical (TPC and TFC) properties were studied. Rice flour extrudate was found to have 6.63% protein and 0.17% fiber which were further increased to about 8.44 and 0.8%, respectively after addition of jackfruit seed flour at 180°C with 300 rpm. Extrusion cooking at lower barrel temperature resulted in increase in TPC and TFC. Rice- jackfruit seed flour blend extrudate at 180°C with 100 rpm resulted in highest antioxidant capacity and reducing power (208.56 µmol of TE/g and 0.26 mg of AAE/g of dry powder respectively). Practical applications: Although there is increased use of extrusion processing, but still there is no fully developed theory to predict the effects of process variables on various raw materials and their mixtures. Any change in feed composition and process variables can influence extrusion performance as well as product quality. Therefore, it is crucial to study the effect of extrusion process parameters (barrel temperature and screw speed) on extrudate characteristics. Also, the researchers, so far, tried lots of combinations for nutraceutical enrichment of extrudate snacks. To the best of our knowledge, this is first report on extrusion cooking of RF fortified with JFSF. In future, this data could be useful for food processing industries. Originality of this study demonstrates the feasibility of developing value added extrudates with improved nutrimental and nutraceutical appeal. Present study shows potential for utilization of jackfruit seed which is part of the waste generated in large quantities when the fruit is processed or consumed.

Prediction of viral filtration performance of monoclonal antibodies based on biophysical properties of feed.

Controlling viral contamination is an important issue in the process development of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) produced from mammalian cell lines. Virus filtration (VF) has been demonstrated to be a robust and effective clearance step which can provide ≥4 logs of reduction via size exclusion. The minimization of VF area by increasing flux and filter loading is critical to achieving cost targets as VFs are single use and often represent up to 10% of total purification costs. The research presented in this publication describes a development strategy focused on biophysical attributes of product streams that are directly applicable to VF process performance. This article summarizes a case study where biophysical tools (high-pressure size exclusion chromatography, dynamic light scattering, and absolute size exclusion chromatography) were applied to a specific MAb program to illustrate how changes in feed composition (pH, sodium chloride concentration, and buffer salt type) can change biophysical properties which correlate with VF performance. The approach was subsequently refined and expanded over the course of development of three MAbs where performance metrics (i.e., loading and flux) were evaluated for two specific virus filters (Viresolve Pro and Planova 20N) during both unspiked control runs and virus clearance experiments. The analyses of feed attributes can be applied to a decision tree to guide the recommendation of a VF filter and operating conditions for use in future MAb program development. The understanding of the biophysical properties of the feed can be correlated to virus filter performance to significantly reduce the mass of product, time, and costs associated with virus filter step development.

Physical and chemical changes of coal during catalytic fluidized bed gasification

Coal gasification was studied by analyzing samples of feedstock extracted from a fluidized bed gasifier at various times throughout the gasification process. The analysis techniques used included energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for elemental concentrations in the bulk and at the surface, respectively; acidimetric titrations to quantify the concentration of certain oxygen functional groups; and the BET method to determine surface area and porosity. The changes in feed particle size and composition showed that the gasification reaction rate was slow compared to the gas diffusion rates inside the coal particle. Detailed analysis of the composition and oxygen functional groups showed that the catalyst was loaded in the coal by ion exchange with surface oxygen functional groups. As the gasification reaction proceeded, the oxidized carbon content increased in the coal loaded with catalyst, but decreased in the coal without catalyst. That result supports the idea that the catalyst increases the reaction rate by helping to oxidize the carbon and increasing the number of reactive sites, rather than by decreasing the energy barrier for carbon–carbon bond breakage.

Control System Design for Energy Efficient On-Target Product Purity Operation of a High-Purity Petlyuk Column

Energy efficient, on-target product purity operation of a high-purity three product benzene–toluene–xylene ternary Petlyuk column is studied. The basic regulatory control system consists of four temperature inferential control loops with a fixed prefractionator vapor-to-fresh feed ratio. An economic control system on top of the regulatory layer adjusts these five set points. It consists of three product purity controllers that adjust three temperature set points along with a reboiler duty reduction controller that adjusts the remaining two free set points in the regulatory layer. The latter makes these adjustments to prevent the downward curvature in the prefractionator and main column middle section temperature profiles from being too large. Closed loop results for large feed composition changes show significant energy savings (up to 15%) are realized via temperature profile curvature control compared to constant set point column operation. The case study highlights the need for innovative control strate...

Micro-kinetics of NO storage and reduction with H2/CO/C3H6 on Pt/BaO/Al2O3 monolith catalysts

Isothermal steady state NOx storage and reduction on Pt/BaO/Al2O3 by H2/CO/C3H6 reactant mixtures is studied using, 1 + 1 dimensional two-phase model that accounts for washcoat diffusional limitations. It predicts the storage and reduction performance over a wide range of inlet feed concentrations and temperatures. A major limitation of global kinetic models is not being able to predict accurately the performance of the catalyst with changing feed composition. Micro-kinetic models elucidating the role of individual reductants can account for such variations. The temperature dependence of the rate constants has been quantified so that the surface chemistry is consistent with experimental observations. Inclusion of washcoat diffusion enables the model to accurately predict the NOx conversion and scale-up performance of the catalyst over a wide temperature range. The sensitivity of the estimated kinetic parameters to the effective diffusivities in the washcoat is analyzed. Results indicate that the estimated micro-kinetic parameters are influenced by the washcoat pore structure as well as the properties of the catalytic and storage components.

Investigation of the Effect of the Vapor Split Ratio Decision in Design on Operability for DWC by Numerical Simulation

The effect of the vapor split ratio on the operability of divided wall column (DWC) is numerically investigated. Four DWCs for separating a three-component mixture with, respectively, four different compositions are designed and then simulated to show the dependence of a total annualized cost (TAC) of the columns on the vapor split ratio, rv, which is subjected to change in operation for reason for either the design uncertainty or the possible change in the feed composition. It is shown that the TAC is sensitive to the rv, and the extent of the sensibility depends on the feed composition in the design. It is also demonstrated that the flexibilities of the four DWCs designed respectively for the different cases over the feed composition change exhibit differently, and a DWC designed for the feed with relatively higher concentration of the light component tends to have higher flexibility over the feed composition change. By the simulation the vapor split ratio is shown to be an important decision variable i...

Improved Design and Control of Triacetin Reactive Distillation Process for the Utilization of Glycerol

Glycerol utilization is an important research topic because of recent surging biodiesel production through transesterification of vegetable oils and animal fats. One of the valuable products from glycerol is gained through esterification with acetic acid to produce triacetin. Hasabnis and Mahajani1 proposed an entrainer-based reactive column configuration with stoichiometric feed ratio to obtain high selectivity and conversion. This paper corrects the kinetic parameters in Hasabnis and Mahajani1 to better describe this reaction system. A more effective reactive entrainer for this reactive distillation system is also proposed to better carry water to the top of the column. The other modification is to assume feed compositions of the glycerol and acetic acid feed streams containing some water as impurity as opposed to idealistic pure feed assumptions. The operation and control of this system are also investigated. The proposed tray-temperature control strategy is able to maintain product purity despite disturbances from throughput and feed composition changes.

Comparison of Two Types of Control Structures for Benzene Chlorine Reactive Distillation Systems

The “neat” operation of the two-reactant reactive distillation column has better steady-state economics, while it presents a challenge for design, optimization, and control of the process. Based on the optimal economic design, the dual-composition control structure and dual-temperature control structure are designed respectively for the benzene chlorine consecutive reactive distillation process. The effectiveness and robustness are analyzed comparably for the disturbance resistance in terms of changes of production rate and feed composition. Results show that dual-temperature control with propose selection of tray temperatures and the optimal profile of the set point can provide better transient process performance than the composition control structure.

Comparison of the environmental footprint of the egg industry in the United States in 1960 and 2010

The US egg industry has evolved considerably over recent decades by incorporating new technologies and production practices. To date, there has been no comprehensive assessment of the resource demand and environmental effects of these changes. This study quantifies the environmental footprint of egg production supply chains in the United States for 2010 compared with 1960 using life cycle assessment. The analysis considers changes in both foreground (e.g., hen production performance) and background (e.g., efficiencies of energy provision, fertilizer production, production of feed inputs, and transport modes) system variables. The results revealed that feed efficiency, feed composition, and manure management are the 3 primary factors that determine the environmental impacts of US egg production. Further research and improvements in these areas will aid in continual reduction of the environmental footprint of the US egg industry over time. Per kilogram of eggs produced, the environmental footprint for 2010 is 65% lower in acidifying emissions, 71% lower in eutrophying emissions, 71% lower in greenhouse gas emissions, and 31% lower in cumulative energy demand compared with 1960. Table egg production was 30% higher in 2010; however, the total environmental footprint was 54% lower in acidifying emissions, 63% lower in eutrophying emissions, 63% lower in greenhouse gas emissions, and 13% lower in cumulative energy demand compared with 1960. Reductions in the environmental footprint over the 50-yr interval considered can be attributed to the following: 27 to 30% due to improved efficiencies of background systems, which outweighed the declining energy return on energy invested for primary energy sources; 30 to 44% due to changes in feed composition; and 28 to 43% due to improved bird performance.

Mathematical Modeling of 1,3-Butadiene and Methyl Methacrylate Emulsion Copolymerization Process

A mathematical model for emulsion copolymerization process of 1,3-butadiene and methyl methacrylate is presented and validated with experimental data in a batch reactor. The model is able to explain the effects of changes in temperature, monomer-to-water ratio, emulsifier concentration, initiator concentration, and monomer feed composition on the time evolution of monomer conversion, average particle size, and pressure. Despite its simplicity and a reduced number of adjustable parameters, the model is capable of accounting for the basic features of emulsion copolymerization processes and can be used in engineering applications.

Control of Dividing-Wall Columns via Fuzzy Logic

Because of their potential energy savings, dividing-wall columns (DWCs) have been viewed as an interesting alternative to the use of sequences based on conventional distillation columns. The energy savings, however, must be supported by suitable controllability properties for a proper operation. In this study we use a design methodology to optimize the gains of the Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy controller and show its implementation for the control of a DWC. Comparison with optimal proprotional–integral–derivative (PID) controllers was carried out to further analyze the performance of the proposed controller under load disturbances in feed composition and set point changes. The case studies considered here are the separation of pentane–hexane–heptane and the industrially relevant separation of benzene–toluene–xylene. The results show that the fuzzy controller provides a suitable option for DWC control and that it produces improved control performance with respect to the conventional PID controller.