» »
»
Heat Recovery
To treat the meal without chemicals while also increasing the nutritional value for its use as or for being processed into the animal feed, Agrifirm a chemical-free process that heats the feed to approximately 130 ° C through radio frequency waves. Courtesy of Solex Thermal Science.
Agirfirm’ s livestock feed plant in Oss, The Netherlands. Courtesy of Solex Thermal Science.
The meal used for animal feed. Courtesy of Solex Thermal Science.
On-site, the raw product( soy and rape seed meal) is stored in silos. The product is conveyed to the pre-heater( MBHE) where it is preheated to about 70 ° C – after which the product is fed to the RF process where it receives the required thermal treatment to stabilize the product. The product is then conveyed from the RF equipment into the product cooler( MBHE) where it is cooled to approximately 30 ° C before it goes into storage. To recover energy from the hot product, the preheater and the cooler are connected via a heat pump. Driven by electrical energy, the heat pump creates a temperature gain from the water rejected from the cooler, and then“ upcycles” it for use in the preheater. Because not all the energy in the cooling water can be used in the preheater, the system also includes a dry cooler and a chiller. The energy that cannot be used in the heat pump is rejected in the dry cooler. In case of high ambient temperatures, the dry cooler is assisted by a chiller to ensure the product can be cooled to the desired outlet temperature of around 30 ° C. The system’ s flexibility ensures the entire process consumes as little primary energy as possible while still ensuring the product’ s outlet temperature meets desired specifications.
Conclusion Initial results from the first nine months of production have provided encouraging results, with performance optimization being achieved and the product consistently meeting required standards. The co-operation between Agrifirm and Solex on this unique process demonstrates that energy recovery from solids in MBHE can improve the energy efficiency of operations and reduce primary energy consumption. Moreover, the Solex system has garnered praise for its alignment with Agrifirm’ s sustainability goals, particularly in terms of energy consumption and carbon intensity.
46 Heat Exchanger World June 2025 www. heat-exchanger-world. com