Solid-state Fermentation

In July 2016, a soybean meal fermentation line supplied by Myande Group for Zhejiang Cofine Biotech Inc. Ltd was put into production. It is expected that the successful completion of this project will accelerate Cofine’s pace of strategy development and enhance Myande’s market recognition in the solid fermentation engineering industry. It represents one milestone in Myande’s achievements in accelerating sustainable and healthy development of green animal feed industry.   Initiated by Dr. Zhang Tingzhou, Zhejiang Cofine Biotech Inc. Ltd. is a technology-intensive corporation playing a leading role in producing fermented functional protein. Drawing on reliable research results of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Zhejiang University, and China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Institute of Microbiology of China Academy, Cofine has focused on microbial fermentation and bioengineering. The company’s mission is to reduce the cost of feed, advance animal husbandry, and improve the quality of related produces.   Fermentation engineering is an emerging core business of Myande. In recent years, “Myande” has developed into a widely recognized professional brand in the solid fermentation industry in China. Myande fermentation engineering has the following features:   Integrated Solutions With strong integrative engineering capabilities, Myande provides its clients with complete package engineering services that cover site planning, civil design, process design, equipment R&D and supply, installation, commissioning, staff training, and after-sale service. With this comprehensive package, Myande is in a good position to ensure efficient and effective implementation of the whole project.   First-class Mechanical Manufacture Myande always insists on the concept of “excellent manufacture”. Equipped with heavy-duty CNC lathes, laser cutting machine, pentahedron machining centers, welding robots intelligent warehouse, Myande ensures first-class quality and reliability of all machinery products.   Three-Dimensional Design Myande is unique in the fermentation engineering industry in that it adopts advanced 3D technology in project design, which provides the client with remarkable benefits that include clear, accurate, and visualized presentation of plant overall structure, equipment layout, and piping system. Compared with traditional two-dimensional design, three- dimensional design provides more accurate positioning of equipment and piping, thus effectively avoiding interference between civil construction and equipment, shortening installation time, and improving installation efficiency.   Customer Oriented Service Myande provides clients with mature and highly individualized solutions and process equipment based upon their specific needs and requirements. Myande fermentation equipment include rectangular trough fermentation bed, rectangular fermentation machine with controllable temperature and humidity, circular fermentation tower, and circular fermentation machine. Custom-made drying equipment include tube dryer, live drying tower, and circulation dryer.   Automatic Control System Myande’s fermentation engineering services include design and supply of sophisticated automatic control system that enables precise adjustment of process parameters on the computer screen. Myande control system enables its clients to reduce labor cost and improve productivity.

Recently, Myande Group and Taian Shengliyuan Bioengineering Co, Ltd, a branch of Taishan Liquor Group, reached an agreement by which Myande will undertake for Shengliyuan a 20,000 T/A meal fermentation engineering project. During business talks leading to the finalization of the project agreement, Myande with its comprehensive technological advantages won the approval and recognition of Taishan Group. Myande sales director Mr. Zhou Bin and Shengliyuan General Manager Mr. Xu Qimin signed the agreement. This cooperative project represents a major milestone of Myande’s efforts in promoting the trend of automation in China’s fermentation industry.   According to the agreement, Myande will provide comprehensive engineering services, which will include process design, civil works design, design and supply of automation control system, equipment manufacture, installation, and commissioning. The major component of the project consists in a custom-designed 10,000 T/A aerobic yeast generating line and a 10,000 T/A anaerobic fermentation line.   The project will adopt industry-leading process technology and reliable mechanical equipment to ensure reliability and stability of final product parameters. The fermentation section, which stands as the core part of the whole project, will adopt Myande’s patented circular fermentation tower, technical advantages of which includes compact structure leading to reduced space requirement and construction cost. The complete processing line, with compact and efficient layout planning, enables full automatic control of fermentation process and real-time monitoring of process parameters. All these features provide necessary prerequisite for ensuring high quality of the final products.   As a “new & high technology enterprise” owned by Taishan Liquor Group, Taian Shengliyuan Bioengineering Co.Ltd specializes in the development, production and promotion of biological fermentation products. Following by its clearly-defined operational concept featuring "specialization” and “differentiation", Taian Shengliyuan has taken full advantage of its technological advantages in fermentation industry and has formed close cooperation ties with numerous well-known universities and research institutes at home and abroad to develop bio-protein feed and feed additives. With years of efforts, Taian Shengliyuan has grown into one of the leading suppliers of bio-protein feeds in China.   Myande always treats every customer with a grateful heart. Adhering to the corporate culture of "passion and enthusiasm, precision, honesty", Myande will provide customers with secure, reliable and energy-saving equipment and engineering services for the objective of creating value for customers and the society.  

With the increasing popularity of feedstuff fermentation technology in China, the feed industry and breeding industry have put forward new requirements on the output and quality of fermented raw materials. The reliability of the fermentation raw materials production technology and equipment plays a decisive role in the quality. The moisture content of feedstuff after solid-state fermentation is normally about 40%, and it’s easy to deteriorate if improperly preserved. In addition, in the industrial production of feedstuff, it’s difficult to add wet materials to the feed production stage automatically. Therefore, most manufacturers of fermentation feedstuff need to adopt drying equipment to reduce the moisture content of feedstuff to be less than 13% for storage and transportation while ensuring its stability and quality.   1. Soybean Meal Fermentation Process The process of soybean meal solid fermentation can be briefly described as follows. Feed the strain to the raw materials and then add water for mixing until the moisture content of the fermentation materials is about 40%. Then, feed the material into fermentation equipment for solid-state fermentation, which generally lasts 2 to 4 days. After fermentation, drying the materials until the final product moisture content is not higher than 10%, then grind and pass through a 20~40 mesh sieve, and finally packaged. Traditional solid-state fermentation equipment tends to require a large amount of labor. Since the low level of automation, it is unsuitable for continuous production. Current intelligent solid-state fermentation equipment can automatically feed and discharge. The discharge is uniform and stable, and the back end can be connected with the drying system seamlessly, bringing products with excellent and stable quality and good fermentation effects.     2. Current Situation of Solid-state Fermentation Equipment At present, solid fermentation equipment in the industry mainly includes ground stacking fermentation, ton bag fermentation, above-ground tank fermentation, box fermentation, plastic bag fermentation and underground pool fermentation. Most such equipment has the following problems: low automation, requiring a large amount of labor; poor sanitary conditions, cross-contamination; being difficult to guarantee fermentation conditions; no large-scale and continuous production, if not controlled correctly, it’s likely to be counterproductive in the fermentation process (infected with bacteria and go moldy, produce toxins, etc.). However, the intelligent fermentation equipment has the following characteristics: continuous and scale production; automatic and intelligent operation; the fermentation environment is controllable to ensure the fermentation conditions; good sanitary conditions without cross-contamination and well-cleaned equipment; energy-efficient running which will reduce fermentation costs; fermentation and drying equipment is environmentally friendly.   3. Intelligent Fermentation Equipment 3.1 Automated rectangular fermentation bed (facultative aerobic) The materials are fed into the distributing machine by air, and then inoculated in the inoculation mixer, and finally be distributed; the fermentation bed has the auxiliary heating function, which is generally used for facultative or anaerobic fermentation; the bed thickness is usually 700 ~1,000 mm and it can be appropriately adjusted according to the actual production conditions; automatic feeding and material tumbling is realizable in the production process; after fermentation, the discharging is automatic, continuous, quantitative, uniform and stable discharging, and the back end can be seamlessly connected with the drying system.     3.2 Round fermentation tower It’s generally adopted for facultative or anaerobic fermentation, and is for high bed fermentation; the maximum bed thickness is 2,000 mm and it can be appropriately adjusted according to the actual production conditions; automatic feeding and discharging is realizable in the production process, and the discharging is continuous, quantitative, uniform and stable discharging, and the back end can be seamlessly connected with the drying system. Good anaerobic fermentation environment and excellent fermentation effects generate stable products. The capacity is 50~100T/batch.     3.3 Rectangular aerobic fermentation bed The fermentation machine can automatically adjust the temperature, humidity and ventilation quantity to control the fermentation process. The inoculated materials are fed into the fermentation machine, the bed thickness is usually 300~450 mm and it can be appropriately adjusted according to the actual production conditions; the machine is specially designed for shallow bed fermentation; automatic feeding and material tumbling is realizable in the production process; after fermentation, the discharging is automatic.     3.4 Round fermentation machine (aerobiotic) The fermentation machine can automatically adjust the temperature, humidity and ventilation quantity to control the fermentation process. The inoculated materials are fed into the fermentation machine, the bed thickness is usually 300 ~500 mm and it can be appropriately adjusted according to the actual production conditions; the machine is specially designed for shallow bed fermentation; automatic feeding and material tumbling is realizable in the production process; after fermentation, the discharging is automatic.   4. Drying Equipment 4.1 Shell and tube dryer Steam is in the tube pass and materials contact with the shell pass, and the materials are scattered by the shovelling plate, transported and dried in the dryer. The dryer has the following advantages: single equipment has large capacity, high efficiency and energy saving, low steam and electricity consumption for per ton of materials, continuous production.   4.2 Live drying tower The bed thickness is adjustable and the materials inside are in fluidized state and fully contact with hot air, which will generate a flash evaporation effect. The materials can be dried in the low temperature and continuous production and energy-saving are realizable.   4.3 Combined drying Combining the tube bundle dryer with the live drying tower: most water is removed from the materials in the tube bundle dryer, and then the materials are fed into the live drying tower for secondary drying, which fully takes advantage of the two machines, resulting in energy-saving and low-temperature drying.   4.4 Circulation drying at low temperature Large air volume, quick flash evaporation, and the low-temperature drying will ensure the material activity to the most extent, and it can realize the drying of viscous materials and meet the need for large capacity of single equipment.