SUNFLOWER MEAL PROTEIN ENRICHMENT
TRANSFORMING SUNFLOWER MEAL INTO A NEXT-GENERATION HIGH-PROTEIN FEED SOLUTION
The Elica protein enrichment technology elevates conventional sunflower meal into a premium, high-protein ingredient for the feed industry. Through a precise two-stage process — impact milling followed by intelligent fractionation — the protein content of sunflower meal is enhanced from standard levels to over 50% on a dry basis.
This innovation provides a powerful alternative to soybean meal, reducing dependence on imported, genetically modified feed sources while supporting the transition toward sustainable, plant-based protein production.
The Elica protein enrichment solution can process up to 2 tons of sunflower meal per hour. The investment is up to 1 million euro, with a payback period under 11 months.
With lower fiber, higher nutritional value, and improved economic efficiency, the Elica enrichment technology positions sunflower meal as the future cornerstone of feed protein.
Demand for soybean meal alternative
Constant growth of the global population elevates pressure on the livestock sector to meet the growing demand for animal protein supply. Expanded and more efficient use of the plant-based proteins could be an important step towards sustainable food production. Although plant proteins could be obtained from various sources, soybean meal has been the most important source of high quality vegetable proteins and represents a standard to which other proteins are compared. Soybean meal is characterized by low fiber content, high protein content and its optimal amino acid composition, as well as an especially high content of lysine that is the most limiting amino acid in grains. However, the use of soybean meal has also several disadvantages. Due to the presence of antinutritional substances, the preparation of soybean meal requires heat treatment which has to be conducted properly in order to avoid undesirable reduction of protein functionality. Soybean meal is also the number one genetically modified crop in the world and GMO products are not authorized in every country, especially in Europe. Besides that, the lack of appropriate climatic conditions for growing soybeans in Europe leads to insufficient production, and many European countries are forced to import this protein-rich feedstock. The aforementioned significantly impacts the final costs of soybean meal and the interest for alternative, more economical sources of proteins is rapidly growing.
Sunflower meal
Sunflower meal, a product of oil extraction from sunflower seeds, is an important protein source in the feed industry. There is a common interest for the proper utilization of sunflower meal and for the development of an effective enrichment process in order to obtain a nutritionally improved sunflower meal.
With the Elica protein enrichment technology through impact milling and fractionation, protein content reaches over 50 percent on a dry basis. The process yields three distinct fractions: high-protein meal (min 50% CP), normal protein meal (min 36% CP), and husk.
High protein sunflower meal
Sunflower meal, a product of oil extraction from sunflower seeds, is an important protein source in European feed industry. There is a common interest for the proper utilization of sunflower meal and for the development of an effective enrichment process in order to obtain a nutritionally improved sunflower meal.
The first phase of process included impact milling. In the second phase, the ground sunflower meal was fractionated by sieving. Results indicated improved protein content of the starting sunflower meal to a level sufficient to categorize it as “high-protein” content 48%+ on dry basis.
