设计在最前沿的效率

As energy costs have risen nationwide, it’s become an increasingly large factor in the overall cost of manufacturing feed for poultry and livestock integrators, feed manufacturing companies and agriculture cooperatives.

这是饲料厂所有者在调试绿地设施或翻新项目时更频繁地将能源效率作为首要任务的原因之一。WL Port-Land系统.

该趋势还遵循该行业围绕可持续性的关注和透明度的提高。拿ADM的努力35例如，这强调了该公司的目标是将绝对温室气体排放量减少25％，能源强度15％，水强度降低10％，并达到90％的垃圾填埋场转移率，到2035年。

Turning to building and design firms for solutions to these and other sustainability initiatives may be the first step in the right direction.

在设计饲料厂时，布局，电动机选择和照明等因素都在减少能源消耗方面有所作为，而行业正在等待替代燃料源的可用性，以为明天的商业规模饲料厂提供动力。

智能布局

饲料厂的布局对能源使用情况有很大影响。

用于能源消耗的布局优化是前面和中心ADM根据动物营养北美总裁瑞安·莱恩（Ryan Lane）的说法。

“When we engage with any of our partners that help us with the pre-engineering of a facility, we look at the logistics of the plant, how everything will move around, and its impact on energy use, water use and waste management,” Lane says.

Loren Field, P.E., executive vice president ofYounglove, recommends arranging equipment and bins with the shortest distance between them and the fewest quantity of conveyors. This saves energy related to transporting raw materials and ingredients from process to process.

Field also advises his clients to use chain conveyors versus screw conveyors for material handling and gravity flow bucket elevator discharges because they both use less energy to move product.

将窗户或半透明的金属建筑面板纳入布局也可以通过捕获仓库中的自然光线来节省能源，从而减少了对电灯的需求。

LED lighting

Although a smaller portion of energy usage, lighting has made great strides in efficiency and use at least 75% less energy than incandescent lighting.

“所有工厂都应使用LED照明，” Field说。“ LED灯将提供照明的工作区，其成本低于传统的高压钠或金属卤化物固定装置，并提供更长的鳞茎寿命。”

当空间中的活动停止时，甚至可以对LED灯具进行编程以调暗或关闭。然后，当感觉运动时，固定装置在活动期间最多可点亮100％。

Lighting is important, but WL Port-Land’s Cowles notes that the nonmotor electrical load in a feed mill is typically less than 15% of the total load, and “identifying ways to make grinding and pelleting operations more efficient will have a greater impact since these systems combined are typically more than 50% of the total load,” he says.

电动机和驱动器

每周以商业规模生产动物饲料，需要市场上一些最大，最强大的电动机和驱动器。与电动机相关的电负荷占设施总负荷的85％以上，并且在启动这些大型电动机时，设施所有者越来越认识到与Inrush电流相关的需求费用。

安装可变频率驱动器（VFD），用于大马力或高惯性设备，例如铲斗电梯，研磨机，颗粒厂，颗粒冷却器风扇和混合器，这是一种解决方案。VFD通过改变所提供的频率来控制电动机的速度。

“VFDs provide flexibility to adapt to the fluctuating load profile of the systems allowing for much greater efficiency at partial loads,” Cowles explains.

VFDs offer benefits like smoother decelerations and accelerations in conveyor applications, reducing the backlash you may get with V-belt drives.

“For mechanical drives, consideration can be given to utilizing complete gear driven assemblies rather than using a belt drive between the motor and gear reducer,” Cowles says.

“对于不规则维护的皮带驱动器，V带驱动器的运行效率可能小于90％，而齿轮驱动器对于每个还原点的效率为98％至99％。”

Younglove’s Field notes that belt drives can also be optimized for energy efficiency in certain applications.

“If belts must be used, a poly chain belt will provide the best efficiency,” he says. “Gearing in the drive should be helical beveled gears and synthetic oil should be used as the drive will run cooler, thus reducing wasted energy.”

未来的燃料

为了减少能源消耗的工程，最新的设计和技术将继续向上趋势，但是，随着压力越来越不依赖化石燃料，工程师最终希望看到替代燃料的更广泛可用性。

The groundwork for greater access to wind and solar power is already being laid. In 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects 46.1 gigawatts of new utility-scale electric generating capacity to be added to the U.S.’s power grid.

Nearly 50% of the planned 2022 capacity additions are from solar while wind accounts for 17% of the increase.

但是太阳能和风力并非没有缺点。

“These sources are heavily dependent on optimal weather conditions,” Field says. “Because of that, they can’t be relied upon as a constant power source. To help resolve this problem, much research is being done on battery energy storage systems.

“Currently battery energy storage systems are not feasible for use on an industrial scale, however, should additional battery technology breakthroughs occur, the feasibility of this alternative energy source could change,” he says.

Those breakthroughs might come sooner than expected.

The EIA reports that U.S. utility-scale battery storage capacity will grow by 5.1 GW in 2022, an 84% increase over current capacity. ■

宣布未来数字补品的饲料厂
In January 2022, WATT feed brands’饲料和谷物和饲料策略杂志联合起来发射每月未来的饲料厂digital supplement. Each edition aims to provide animal feed industry stakeholders with forward-looking content, market insights and a spotlight on the leading-edge technologies shaping the global feed industry of tomorrow.

—Elise Schafer