World Grain - April 2022 - 58

FEATURE: INSECTS, GRAIN MILLS AND THEIR ROLE IN SUSTAINABILITY
The key to success in a growing
market for biorefinery plants is to
combine each solution to a high
sustainable and profitable value chain.
Dirk-Michael Fleck, senior adviser, Biorefinery, Bühler
fiber or germs are obtained from the flour through specifically
adapted grinding and separation processes.
WG: You are responsible at Bühler for the Biorefinery
Segment. What does that entail?
Fleck: At Bühler, by biorefinery we mean a deep-processing
plant that separates cereals into their pure natural
components and then processes these intermediate products
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 synergetic
way. It is very multifaceted and complex, but it
also is an extremely interesting and challenging area in an
industrial 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.
WG: Which intermediate product has the highest demand?
Fleck: 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% of total production, depending on the raw material
and process, the demand for them is highest, and therefore
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.
WG: What is starch used for?
Fleck: Most of it goes into food, especially if you include
sweeteners for soft drinks and confectionery. Often
the starchy fraction is being converted in a fermentation
and distillation process into alcohol. It can be portable alcohol
or biofuels to ensure more environmentally friendly
combustion. In times of COVID-19, hand disinfectant
also has to be mentioned. It contains around 80% 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 protect transported goods. It is starch
that provides this strength. The huge advantage over plas58
tic
packaging, for example, is cardboard's high level of
recyclability and environmental compatibility. Recycled
cardboard contains around 10% starch, which acts as an
adhesive holding the cellulose fibers together and providing
stability.
WG: What is Bühler's contribution to the biorefinery
sector?
Fleck: Biorefinery is in the center of Bühler's main focus
areas. A significant amount of grain is processed in
biorefineries and Bühler is one of the world's leading technology
companies in grain processing. But the finished
products produced in a biorefinery are probably of even
greater importance. Here, Bühler offers an exceptional
platform for producers and investors: with solutions for
animal nutrition, aquafeed, pet food, bakery and confectionery,
extrusion of meat analogues and, more recently,
our innovative insects business, Bühler provides holistic
solutions for these promising products and markets.
WG: What do bakeries and insects have to do with
biorefinery?
Fleck: Take sponge cake or tasty bread - the glucose
used for sweetening cake and the wheat gluten used to
improve the baking properties of bread flour are both
products that come from a starch plant. With insects, we
have great upcycling opportunity in the value chain of a
biorefinery plant. In the future, a significant amount of our
animal protein requirements will be met through protein
production at large insect facilities. This is because of
insects' high sustainable and low ecological footprint on
protein production. Recently, Bühler commissioned one
of the first large-scale industrial plants for insect protein
production. The feed for these insects can be produced
from byproducts of a cereal-based biorefinery. The protein
obtained from the insect plant can then be processed
into a high-quality aquafeed, with extrusion technology
from Bühler.
WG: Is biorefining becoming increasingly important
for Bühler?
Fleck: Yes, it is. The key to success in a growing market
for biorefinery plants is to combine each solution to a
high sustainable and profitable value chain. The example
of insects shows how a sustainable and intelligent combination
of a wheat starch mill and insects can play an
important role in tackling the major challenges that our
planet faces with its growing population.
Dirk-Michael Fleck is a senior adviser of biorefinery, Milling Solutions
for Bühler. He may be reached at dirk-michael.fleck@buhlergroup.com.
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April 2022 / World Grain / World-Grain.com
http://www.World-Grain.com
World Grain - April 2022

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