Starch Factory Research Articles

The role of specific energy consumption in a heat recovery system for cassava starch production using an integrated agro-industrial system

BackgroundReducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions is a crucial issue in the cassava starch processing industry. In this study, the integrated system combining livestock, cassava cultivation and cassava production in the same area leads to both a zero emission goal and economic efficiency, a typical example of an effective agro-industrial symbiosis. A heat exchange/recovery system was applied including the economizer, heat exchanger tank, biogas tank, and boiler. The economizer attached to the boiler’s chimney transfers heat from exhaust gases for pre-heating feed water entering the boiler. The biogas tank recovers energy from the wastewater of starch production and livestock, and the generated biogas was used as fuel for the boiler.ResultsThe energy and exergy efficiency, energy losses, and exergy destruction for the heat recovery system were analyzed. The specific energy consumption was used to evaluate the overall energy efficiency for a cassava starch factory with a capacity of 20 tons/day. The results show that there is a high potential to recycle waste into energy in the cassava starch industry. The total energy saving and reduced greenhouse gas emissions per year of the cassava starch factory were 0.054%/year and 123,564 kgCO2/per year, respectively.ConclusionsCassava starch factories can save energy and reduce emissions when applying a heat recovery system in the integrated agro-industrial system. Excess heat from the production was used for evaporating (removal of) NH3 in wastewater flow from the biogas tank, and for heating the biogas system to enhance the efficiency of methane production. A biochar filter was attached to the economizer for adsorption of released ammonium, and the biochar after adsorption was combined with sludge from the biogas tank to produce a solid biofertilizer.

Assessment of Factors Associated with Alcohol Abuse among Youth Aged (15-25) Years in Starch Factory at Lira Municipality Lira District, Uganda

In Uganda, alcohol consumption has been on the rise, with WHO ranking Uganda as the highest consumer in the world. Studies conducted among internally displaced populations in war-torn areas of northern Uganda have revealed that alcoholism is a prevalent issue, particularly among men. This has become a major cause of domestic violence, accidents, and other fatalities within homes. The aim of this study was to assess the factors contributing to alcohol abuse among young people aged 15-25 at Starch Factory at Lira district Uganda. Questionnaires were used to gather data, which was then analyzed manually using pens, papers, and calculators, and later presented in numerical tables using a computer. The study revealed that the main contributing factors to alcohol abuse among young people were environmental, such as the availability of alcohol, local breweries, and persuasive advertisements. Socio-economic factors, including peer pressure, social norms, unemployment stress, and feelings of boredom, also played a significant role. The study also identified the major repercussions of alcohol abuse on health and the economy. In conclusion, the availability of alcohol through numerous breweries and persuasive advertisements, along with social norms, unemployment, boredom, and peer pressure, were found to be the primary drivers of alcohol abuse among young people in this village. The government should therefore organize and fund health talk programs and seminars to raise awareness within the community about the factors contributing to alcohol abuse and its impact on their lives. Additionally, the government should implement strict alcohol policies that regulate the age, level, and time of alcohol consumption. Keywords: Alcohol consumption, Alcohol abuse, Youths, breweries, Persuasive advertisements.

Fertilisation with potato starch wastewater effect on the growth of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forest in Poland

Fertilisation is often used to increase plant productivity in agriculture but has also been used in forestry. In our study, Scots pine forest growing in a nitrogen-poor environment was fertilised with NPK post-production wastewater from a potato starch factory. Our research aimed to investigate the dependence of tree growth on different NPK concentrations. Cell characteristics such as cell wall thickness (CWT), lumen diameter (LD) and tree-ring features such as ring width (RW), total number of cells in annual growth (nTotal), earlywood (EW) and latewood (LW) were investigated. Twenty-six years of regular fertilisation of the forest with different doses of wastewater rich in NPK elements have affected the anatomical structure of Scots pine trees. It is presumed that the reduction in CWT and LD on the fertilised site was due to deficiencies in plant water conductivity, which may have occurred due to physiological drought. The influence of nitrogen on unfertilised site from the wastewater area could contribute to the CWT thickening. The results confirm that the use of NPK in excessive doses is detrimental to trees' conductive system.

Optimization of Biogas Production from Cassava Peels Mixed with Urea by Central Composite Design Methodology

The amount of cassava wastes is increasing day by day especially in the developing countries like Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo because of the high demand of cassava as food or as raw matter in starch factories. In the both process, 1/3 of wastes is generated from 1 Kg of cassava tubers which could be used as substrate to produce biogas which is the renewable energy to decrease oil dependence and therefore atmospheric pollution depletion. The present study aims to know the optimal conditions for biogas production from biomethanization of cassava peels mixed with urea in mesophilic conditions during 14 days in sixteen reactors of 1 Litre capacity, using response surface methodology (RSM). Two parameters were studied, organic loading rate (OLR) and urea concentration (UC). The variations used for OLR was 5% and 15% TS and for UC, it was 0.01 % and 0.05 %. The variations obtained inside were determined by Central Composite Design (CCD) made from rsm package of R software 4.1.1. Based on experimental results analysis, it was found that urea concentration affect biogas production (P<0.05), the optimum value of Organic Loading Rate and urea concentration were 6.688%TS and 0.0067% respectively, with a optimal biogas yield of 3260.694 mL. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a high coefficient of determination value (R2=0.8146) at 95% confidence level and a p-value of 0.002. The results show that urea concentration has a major impact on biogas production (P<0.05).

Potentials of multi-stress tolerant yeasts, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia kudriavzevii for fuel ethanol production from industrial cassava wastes

Cassava processing wastes are suitable substrates for bioethanol production due to their high starch contents. However, these cassava wastes often contain various substances that inhibit cell growth and ethanol production. The abilities of multi-stress tolerant Saccharomyces cerevisiae LC269108 and Pichia kudriavzevii LC375240 to produce ethanol from cassava industrial wastes were evaluated. Analysis of cassava peels and pulps from two cassava starch factories showed that the cassava peels contained high cyanide (KCN) concentrations while cassava pulps contained high concentrations of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) used to improve starch extraction in the factory. Although S. cerevisiae LC269108 produced ethanol efficiently from the cassava peel, its growth and ethanol production were inhibited in the cassava pulp. On the other hand, the growth and ethanol production by P. kudriavzevii LC375240 were inhibited slightly in the cassava peel but not in the cassava pulp. Based on the intracellular pyruvate concentrations in the presence of KCN and SDBS, it was inferred that their inhibition site is on the pyruvate synthetic pathways. With a co-culture of the two strains, ethanol production from the cassava peel increased significantly but there was no significant improvement in ethanol production from the cassava pulp.

Preliminary study to investigate cellulose biodegradability of Bacillus - Aspergillus and Neurospora Crassa on cassava peels (Manihot Esculenta)

Cassava peel holds an abundance of nutrients that could be utilized as fertilizer in agriculture. However, high cellulose contents make it hard for organic digestion, thus slow down the absorption for plants. In this study, we investigate microorganisms for effective cellulose degradation of cassava peel waste collected directly from Hung Duy Tapioca Starch Factory in Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam. Experiments evaluate the decrease of mass cassava peel of the two groups of Bacillus - Aspergillus and positive control strains such as Neurospora Crassa. The sample was tested on Czapek - Dox liquid culture medium, a method of assessing the dry mass difference of samples used to assess biodegradability in 28 days. Besides, tests to assess the production of products and environmental parameters such as glucose and pH were recorded. Initial results showed that the combination of Bacillus and Aspergillus provides the highest glucose concentration, reached 16.52 mg/ml and digests 53% of the cassava mass compared with a combination of Neurospora Crassa reached 11.45 mg/ml and 46% of the cassava mass. Comparison results also showed that the action potential of microorganisms was stronger when combined and provided evidence that the formation of combinations of microorganisms would work well in probiotics, which brings better environmental treatment efficiency.

Exploring the farmer productive behavior of cassava in effort of developing value-chain linkages to improve smallholder cassava production systems in North Sumatera, Indonesia

Cassava farming in North Sumatera is prominently for cash crops as feedstock to the tapioca starch factory. Multiple stakeholder engagement is needed to develop the value chain linkage to improve the smallholder cassava production system in North Sumatera. The project activity started in 2018 to improve the cassava farming system by introduced new cassava varieties, training on soil and fertilizer management, and linkage between multiple stakeholders to support the smallholder cassava farming. A Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and household surveys were conducted in 2019 to evaluate the changes in farmers’ behavior and perspective toward the improvement of the farming system. The results showed that most of the farmers had improved their farming system, and consequently, the cassava tuber yield than in turn, increased the tapioca starch company productivity. However, several issues need to be solved in order to effectively upscaling the smallholder cassava farming in the region.

Industrialization of Cassava Sector in Ghana: Progress and the Role of Developing High Starch Cassava Varieties

In Ghana, cassava is a marginalized crop in food policies due to low research attention given it. However, high starch in cassava root is an important characteristic that makes the crop a potential industrial cash crop. In light of this, the Government of Ghana in 2001 introduced the Presidential Special Initiative (PSI) on Cassava, which aimed at industrializing the cassava sector for job creation and livelihood improvement through starch extraction. One of the import industrial products from cassava starch is ethanol. Ethanol is reported as the largest opportunity for cassava industrialization in Ghana followed by food-grade starch. However, the local ethanol consuming industry, Kasapreko, operates by importing over 25 million litres of ethanol every year due to inadequate supply of ethanol from local starch factories. This situation exists because of lack of cassava varieties that can yield more starch (75% or more) per total dry weight to feed the starch factories for sustainable production. Therefore, this review explores the relevance of developing high starch yielding cassava to the industrialization of the cassava sector in Ghana and lessons to learn from the success story of Thailand, the country with the world’s most industrialized cassava sector.

The transformation and outcome of traditional cassava starch processing in Guangxi, China

ABSTRACT To improve the resource utilization, reduce the pollution generation, and increase the economic benefits of enterprises, a cleaner process to produce cassava starch was proposed based on potato starch processing, and it was applied to the transformation of a traditional cassava starch processing factory in the Guangxi Province in China. The transformation involves the implementation of several new techniques/facilities, including a rasper, horizontal centrifuge, and hydrocyclone. Based on the transformation, typical cassava starch factories in Guangxi were evaluated. The results show that, through the application of a series of cleaner techniques/facilities, the starch recovery rate increased to 84.5%. The water consumption, wastewater generation, and chemical oxygen demand generation decreased by 53.8%, 49.0%, and 20.7%, respectively. Based on the cleaner process, the wastewater can be treated to meet the national discharge standard by using common wastewater treatment technology.

Industrialization of cassava sector in Ghana: progress and the role of developing high starch cassava varieties

In Ghana, cassava is a marginalized crop in food policies due to low research attention given it. However, high starch in cassava root is an important characteristic that makes the crop a potential industrial cash crop. In light of this, the Government of Ghana in 2001 introduced the Presidential Special Initiative (PSI) on Cassava, which aimed at industrializing the cassava sector for job creation and livelihood improvement through starch extraction. One of the import industrial products from cassava starch is ethanol. Ethanol is reported as the largest opportunity for cassava industrialization in Ghana followed by food-grade starch. However, the local ethanol consuming industry, Kasapreko, operates by importing over 25 million litres of ethanol every year due to inadequate supply of ethanol from local starch factories. This situation exists because of lack of cassava varieties that can yield more starch (75% or more) per total dry weight to feed the starch factories for sustainable production. Therefore, this review explores the relevance of developing high starch yielding cassava to the industrialization of the cassava sector in Ghana and lessons to learn from the success story of Thailand, the country with the world’s most industrialized cassava sector.

Chemical composition and nutritive values of cassava pulp for cattle.

We evaluated the chemical compositions of cassava pulp samples produced by four cassava starch factories at different locations in northeast Thailand and the metabolizable energy (ME) of the cassava pulp for cattle. There were significant differences in the P (0.03%±0.02%) and K (0.36%±0.2%) contents of the samples from different factories (p<.05). Moreover, we found interactions between factory and season in the neutral detergent fiber (36.02%±8.8%) and nonfibrous carbohydrate contents (59.33%±9.1%) (p<.05). For the evaluation of ME, a crossover-design experiment with four cattle maintained in each of two groups was conducted. There were two dietary treatments at a maintenance level of 1.27% body weight: (1) a control diet, and (2) a cassava pulp diet, containing the control diet at 70.2% and cassava pulp at 29.8% (dry matter [DM] basis). Feeding cassava pulp did not affect energy intake, energy loss, heat production, energy utilization efficiency (except for the urine-to-gross energy ratio), methane production, fecal N, or nutrient digestibility (except for crude protein digestibility). The total digestible nutrients, digestible energy, and ME contents of cassava pulp were 74.4%, 12.9MJ/kg DM, and 11.3MJ/kg DM, respectively.

Study of Using Cassava Pulp to Produce Livestock Feed Pellet

In Vietnam, the cassava production capacity is about 10 million tons annually. Indeed, it eliminates approximate 4 million tons of cassava pulp from the cassava starch factories. This amount of cassava is usually dried to feed cattle or fertilizer. However, drying of cassava pulp has its disadvantages such as air pollution, difficult storage and transportation. This study has proposed and successfully tested a line of equipment used to produce pellets from the utilization of fresh cassava pulp bringing from cassava starch processing plants. The processing includes a mixing of fresh cassava pulp with dried cassava starch, pressing and drying of pellets. The experiment results show that when the mixing ratio between cassava starch and cassava residue is 1:10 – 1:5, the cassava pulp pellets after drying achieved the required technical specifications. Hence, it has high volume density, the dried specific weight of the pellets is about 700 kg / m3, the breaking strength of the pellets is greater than 2 kG, the tanning time of the pellets is greater than 116 minutes in water, the moisture content of the pellets is remained in 13% after drying in 5-5.5 hours.

Activated sludge-loaded polyvinyl alcohol microparticles for starch wastewater treatment in an airlift bioreactor

Emulsification followed by freezing and thawing cycles was applied to produce poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) microparticles and to simultaneously immobilize activated sludge. Activity of the obtained microparticles (∼400 μm in diameter) was evaluated in glucose syrup solutions and heat-pretreated wastewater from a starch factory by measurements of permanganate index (COD Mn ) reduction. The reaction followed first-order kinetics, revealing slight mass transfer limitations in PVA microparticles as determined from the kinetic rate constant that was ∼35% lower than that in the freely suspended activated sludge culture. Yet, efficiency of the microparticles increased almost five-fold in a laboratory airlift bioreactor operating either in batch or continuous regimes. Over 19 days of operation under high organic loadings in the industrial wastewater (∼100 kgCOD m−3 d−1), PVA microparticles (12.4% volume fraction) remained active and induced a decrease of over 90% of biodegradable COD Mn at the hydraulic retention time of 8 h.

Simplified recovery of enzymes and nutrients in sweet potato wastewater and preparing health black tea and theaflavins with scrap tea

The industry discards generous organic wastewater in sweet potato starch factory and scrap tea in tea production. A simplified procedure to recover all biochemicals from the wastewater of sweet potato starch factory and use them to make health black tea and theaflavins from scrap green tea was developed. The sweet potato wastewater was sequentially treated by isoelectric precipitation, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration to recover polyphenol oxidase (PPO), β-amylase, and small molecular fractions, respectively. The PPO fraction can effectively transform green tea extracts into black tea with high content of theaflavins through the optimized fed-batch feeding fermentation. The PPO transformed black tea with sporamins can be used to make health black tea, or make theaflavins by fractionation with ethyl acetate. This work provides a resource- and environment-friendly approach for economically utilizing the sweet potato wastewater and the scrap tea, and making biochemical, nutrient and health products.

Comparison of fermented animal feed and mushroom growth media as two value-added options for waste Cassava pulp management.

Cassava is one of the main processed crops in Thailand, but this generates large amounts (7.3 million tons in 2015) of waste cassava pulp (WCP). The solid WCP is sold directly to farmers or pulp-drying companies at a low cost to reduce the burden of on-site waste storage. Using an integrated direct and environmental cost model, fermented animal feed and mushroom growth media were compared as added-value waste management alternatives for WCP to mitigate environmental problems. Primary and secondary data were collected from the literature, field data, and case studies. Data boundaries were restricted to a gate-to-gate scenario with a receiving capacity of 500 t WCP/d, and based on a new production unit being set up at the starch factory. The total production cost of each WCP utilization option was analyzed from the economic and environmental costs. Fermented animal feed was an economically attractive scenario, giving a higher net present value (NPV), lower investment cost and environmental impact, and a shorter payback period for the 10-year operational period. The selling price of mushrooms was the most sensitive parameter regarding the NPV, while the NPV for the price of fermented animal feed had the highest value in the best-case scenario.

Integrated Economic and Environmental Assessment of Biogas and Bioethanol Production from Cassava Cellulosic Waste

Cassava cellulosic waste, or cassava bagasse or pulp, is a solid waste generated from both the coarse and fine extraction processes used for producing starch. Current disposal alternatives, such as selling the wet or dried pulp for animal feed, do not provide a high economic value. Furthermore, when stored at the factory the resulting microbial fermentation of the waste causes environmental pollution and a strong odor. The pulp still has a high starch content and so is suitable for other utilization purposes. The aim of this research was to use a direct economic and environment cost model to assess three potential high value-added renewable energy utilization alternatives for cassava pulp utilization to help define appropriate option(s) for on-site pulp management. The selected utilization options were the production of (i) biogas for heat generation, (ii) biogas for electricity generation and (iii) bioethanol. Primary and secondary data were collected from the literature, surveys and field data. The boundaries of data collection were set as gate-to-gate of a new unit in an existing starch factory with a receiving capacity of 500 t/d of pulp (equivalent to the pulp produced from a 200-t starch factory). The total production cost of each cassava pulp utilization option was calculated from both the economic and environmental cost. The most economically attractive scenario was the production of biogas for heat generation since it gave the highest net present value (NPV), net cash flow and return on sale. The biogas for heat generation option has the highest NPV sensitivity value in all case studies.

Development of an optimization mathematical model by applying an integrated environmental indicator for selecting alternatives in cleaner production programs

The purpose of this work is to propose an optimized mathematical model to facilitate the selection alternatives in cleaner production (CP) programs. On the basics of goal programming, this study develops an integer-programming model for CP option selection in case of multi-innovation objects and multi-alternative scenarios. With the constraints given, the model defines which objects, and which alternatives can be used for innovation to obtain the optimal objective. The model is tested and proved in a cassava starch factory in Tayninh, Vietnam. Based on production accounting, innovation objects and their CP-alternatives in this factory are identified. Baseline integrated environment impact of the factory is 11,882 person equivalent (PE), in which bulk waste is 52.7%, global warming is 11.9%, photochemical ozone creation is 10.8%, energy is 10%, and the rest is 14.5%. With 135,000 USD for environmental impact reduction, the maximum reduction potentials obtained from solving the model are 8335.2 PE and 878.68 PE in case of minimization of integrated environment indicator and global warming, respectively. The results show that this model works excellently as a support alternative selection tool for CP programs. This study also develops a new cyclic methodology for CP programs based on applying the integer-programming model.

Management of Cassava Starch Factory Solid Waste (Thippi) through Composting to a Nutrient-Rich Organic Manure

ABSTRACTIn India, cassava cultivation is confined in South India. In Tamil Nadu, tubers are used as raw material for starch and sago industry. About 8–10 large-scale starch factories and 150–200 small-scale starch and sago production units are generating nearly 40–60 tonnes of solid waste (thippi) per annum creating serious environmental pollution. A study undertaken to manage it through composting to a nutrient-rich organic manure revealed thippi as acidic with low major and micronutrient concentration, high water-holding capacity, good porosity, low bulk density, high starch, fiber, low protein, and cyanide. Composting of thippi with different combinations of raw materials, microbial cultures, and earthworms indicated that thippi enriched with gliricida and cassava leaves and composted with earthworm had the highest nutrient concentration with narrow carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratio. The mean concentrations of N, phosphorus (P), potassium (K) calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) in thippi compost were 1.32, 3.82, 0.40, 2.18, 0.96, 1.11, 0.08%, 11.23, and 89.93 mg/kg, respectively, which is 3.5, 49,7, 32.5, 8, 185, 100, 2.5, and 12 times than thippi. Thippi compost had low bulk density, starch, without fiber and cyanide but high protein suggesting this protocol as a possible alternative for the management of thippi.

UTILIZATION OF SECONDARY TRICTICALE PROCESSING PRODUCTS WITH PRODUCTION OF FODDER MICROBIAL-VEGETATIVE CONCENTRATE FOR POND FISH

Abstract. Aim. The aim of the study was to develop a process for the utilization of secondary products of triticale grain processing into starch and protein concentrate with production of fodder microbial-vegetative concentrate (FMVC) for pond fish. Methods . Standard and special methods for the analysis of chemical, biochemical composition (amino acid, mineral, fatty acid, carbohydrate), microbiological parameters of triticale grain, secondary products of its processing and FMVC were used in this work. Results. It is shown that considering the peculiarities of the chemical composition of whey water, insoluble residue and pulp, it is expedient to produce FMVC by bioconversion method using the producer-yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The feed value of FMVC in terms of protein, lipids, minerals, and fiber met the normative parameters for fodder for pond fish of the Cyprinidae family. FMVC contained digestible carbohydrates, a high-quality protein with essential amino acids and lipids, which included saturated, unsaturated fatty acids, including ω-6, ω-3 families and phosphatides. Conclusion. A process of bioconversion has been developed for the utilization of secondary products of triticale grain processing into starch A and protein concentrate, with the production of FMVC for pond fish based on whey waters. The concentrate was characterized by high values of essential amino acids score, the predominance of unsaturated fatty acids, the presence of biologically active phospholipids, sterols, micro-, macroelements. The use of a concentrate as an additive will ensure the survivability of fish, increase growth, reduce the cost of feed and improve the ecological situation of the starch factory.

An Integer Programming Model for Alternative Selection and Planning Stages for Cleaner Production Programs: a Case Study for Greenhouse Gases Reduction

The selection of subjects (such as waste stream, process, apparatus, ect.) for improvement and development their alternatives when implementing cleaner production (CP) programs at the company in order to achieve the highest efficiency is a complex and timeconsuming process, especially in case when there are many subjects to be improved, and many alternatives for each subject. The problem in this case is which subject and its respective alternative is to be selected in order to obtain maximal waste reduction objective with minimization cost. To solve this problem, this article proposes an optimization mathematical model to support alternatives selection for CP programs. In this study, an integer programming model is applied for defining theselection steps of alternatives and setting the implementing plan within CP program. The proposed model is investigated in a real case study at a cassava starch factory in Tay Ninh, Vietnam (where is the most concentrated area of cassava processing in the country) with purpose to propose the measures for reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and electricity consumption. The results show that this model can be considered as a new effective method for alternative CP selection and planning for CP implementation, especially in case of many subjects and alternatives. The solution of this model can be generalized to apply in any cases with unlimited number of subjects and alternatives.