Ilchovski Bulgaria – Further improvement within the process of sunflower peeling
Operating a sunflower peeling plant in the most economical way means that each and every fraction coming out of the sorting and cleaning plant must have optimum purity. This enables a good market price for each of the products to be achieved without any loss of material into undefined waste streams.
Bulgaria is the no. 1 producer of sunflower in Europe ex aequo, whilst Romania has a high demand for excellent processing facilities of sunflower seed, enabling the country to finalise its no. 2 export commodity (after wheat) at top quality for sales all over Europe, as well as to North America and to the East.
The main output of these kinds of processing facilities is of course whole peeled kernels, without any brokens, shell fragments, discoloured or foreign kernels. This premium product can then be sold for snackfood and confectionary – either roasted or unroasted – but also to bakeries as an ingredient in whole-grain bread.
However, due to splitting up of the various parts of sunflower seed during peeling, the other fractions coming out of the process also need to be strictly separated from each other, thus ensuring the highest possible purity of each.
Lights, sticks and shells for pellet pressing: The importance lies in low oil content, meaning a low quantity of broken kernels and oily dust in this fraction in order to keep the heating value of the final pellets as high as possible. Higher oil content would mean faster burning and less final energy output.
Oily dust and undersized kernels for oil production: The content of the shells needs to be at a certain level to give sufficient resistance to the presses. Empty shells must not be lost to this fraction, due to their higher value for pellet pressing.
In close cooperation with our customer, Mr. Ilchovski, from Knezha in Bulgaria, Cimbria developed a plant setup with optimised yield and throughput, as well as precise separation of the different fractions in order to utilise the plant at the absolute maximum.