Manufacturing with Minimal Energy Consumption: A Product Perspective

The aim of this paper is to highlight energy intensive process steps in compound feed production and their importance for the overall LCA in feed processing. The carbon footprint has become a relevant measure among the animal and feed experts for comparing product or process performances. Our research focuses on the energy intensive process steps in the feed production line. Due to the fact that there is a high pressure on feed and food quality, there are very limited possibilities to change the process since a certain energy input is needed to reach the requested quality. The solution can be provided through an intelligent network process control. The network needs access to automatic sensor control devices that are installed inline to measure varying product parameters like the changing water content in grains for example (due to rainy or dry seasons). The knowledge of certain product parameters will influence the process control like for example steam addition to the process. An intelligent network supports the best energy performance for producing the requested compound feed quality by the customer. The paper summarizes the information along the compound feed production that is necessary for an energy efficient process control and explains how an intelligent network can contribute to the latter.