|
"This MR-based method is more cost-effective
and accurate than present-day quality assurance technology. However,
before we can make a final decision about whether to change over to the
new method, we need to try it out under industrial conditions," says
Løken.
Trials have just started at the Ewos
manufacturing plant on the island of Meløy in the County of Nordland.
The company is the biggest manufacturer of feed for farmed salmon and
trout in the world, and it has four feed production plants in Norway.
The new method of analysing feed was
developed as the result of cooperation between SINTEF Unimed’s MR Centre
and Ewos’s Norwegian sister company Ewos Innovation, which specialises
in research and development for the Group. SINTEF Unimed has patented
the method and can also license it to other feed companies. The
development project at SINTEF Unimed was financially supported by the
innovation company Leiv Eiriksson Nyfotek.
Ewos currently uses NIR technology
(illumination with near-infrared light which is reflected in a spectrum)
to check the fat and protein content of feed during the production
process. According to Løken, changing over to MR will have several
benefits:
- NIR equipment needs to be regularly
calibrated against chemical standards, which is a time-consuming and
expensive process. The MR-based method would greatly reduce the
necessity for calibration.
- Feed particles need to be ground up
for NIR analysis, a step which may reduce the accuracy of the
analysis, while the MR method is non-destructive.
- MR also provides information on the
water content of the feed particles - both total water content and the
amount of water bound to the pore walls (i.e. capillary-bound water).
- MR can also supply information
regarding the size of the pores in feed particles. This is interesting
information with respect to the fat that is added to the feed. The
smaller the pores, the less fat will leach out of pellets on hot
summer days.
In addition to day-to-day control in
production plants, the feed industry currently sends samples of
representative batches of feed to internal or external laboratories for
chemical measurement of their protein and fat content. This is in order
to have documentation to hand in case of complaints about feed quality.
"With the procedures we use today it
takes too long for the results of the tests to come in. In Ewos, we have
a vision of replacing these chemical analyses with MR," says Jan Tore
Løken.
 FIS.com
|
