Miller Magazine Issue: 154 October 2022

73 TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM MILLER / OCTOBER 2022 What does a starch mill produce? Starch mills usually produce one main flour and sev- eral secondary products such as bran from grain. The flour has to meet specific requirements so that, in the wet separation process that follows, starch, protein and oth- er high-quality products can be obtained as efficiently as possible, with high yields and high levels of purity. In the next step, semi-finished products such as starch, protein, fiber or germs are obtained from the flour through specifi- cally adapted grinding and separation processes. You are responsible at Bühler for the Biorefinery Segment. What is “biorefinery”? At Bühler, by “biorefinery” we mean a deep-processing plant that separates cereals into their pure natural com- ponents and then processes these intermediate prod- ucts into high-quality end products. A modern biorefinery has major advantages – it not only creates a sustainable circular flow economy but also recovers energy in a syn- ergetic way. That sounds like a very broad field of activity. Yes, it is very multifaceted and complex, but it also an extremely interesting and challenging area in an industri- al sector that has great potential. It’s amazing to see the huge variety of high-quality, sustainable products that can be produced from grain: not only starch and its derivatives – which include alcohol, sweeteners and acids – but also protein, fiber products, fats and oils from germs, wheat and corn gluten, dried distillers’ grains with solubles (DDGS) and organic fiber. Which intermediate product has the highest demand? Without a doubt, protein is the most valuable fraction. Whether it is obtained from wheat, corn or pulses. Even though this protein fraction accounts for only 5 to 30 per- cent of total production, depending on the raw material and process, the demand for them is highest, and there- fore the profit, too. These proteins are mainly used in the food industry for meat replacing products but also in the fish feed and petfood industry. What is starch used for? Most of it goes into food, especially if you include sweet- eners for soft drinks and confectionery. Often the starchy fraction is being converted in a fermentation and distil- lation process into alcohol. It can be portable alcohol or biofuels to ensure more environmentally friendly combus- tion. In times of COVID-19 hand disinfectant also has to be mentioned. It contains around 80 percent alcohol, which is derived from starch and thus from grain. However, the greatest potential for growth in the recent past has come from the rapid increase in e-commerce and the booming online trade. Packaging has to be of a certain strength to Starch production plants produce a range of intermediate products for human and animal consumption, as well as for industrial processing.