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Pelleting

The process to the perfect pellet.

The pelleting process begins with conditioning where steam is homogeneously mixed with the ingredients at a temperature of up to 95 degrees Celsius. The mash then undergoes thermal treatment for 20 up to 240 seconds to reduce the amount of pathogenic microorganisms, before it is pushed through the holes of a die. A knife systematically cuts the pelletized product from the die and the still warm pellets proceed onwards for cooling.

The path to the perfect pellet, one that achieves optimum hardness and durability, requires top process technology. If too little or too much steam and heat are added to the ingredients, the result will be poor pellet quality. If the mash is not uniformly heated to a high enough temperature, then dangerous pathogenic micro-organisms could remain in the end feed product.

Buhler’s pelleting process expertise focuses on not only on creating a pellet that is hard enough to resist breakage and durable enough to produce very few fines in transportation. In partnership with the feed industry Buhler continually strives for pelleting process technology that improves the feed conversion rates and nutrition of pellets for both animals and aquatic life.

Buhler pelleting technology enables companies to pellet a wide variety of different raw materials- from grains to wood and straw. The pelleting process is applied in both the feed and biomass industries.