Continous conditioning method and apparatus
OwnerWilliam Schottelkotteinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The cooked or dried product from a continuous cooker, comprising fat, protein and residual moisture is required by EU regulations to be processed at a minimum temperature of 133° C. and 3 bar (absolute) pressure for at least 20 minutes. The conditioning system of the present invention is designed to assure that cooked/dried product is continuously processed in accordance with EU directives regarding temperature, pressure and retention time for processing animal by-products.
Claims39
An improved process for rendering and conditioning organic raw material comprising oil, water and solids, comprising the steps of:
- reducing the organic raw material to a plurality of raw material particles and adding at least enough additional fat to make a pumpable slurry;
- cooking the raw material to remove substantially all the water to form a dewatered oil and solids residue;
- and
- continuously conditioning the dewatered oil and solids residue under minimal conditions to form a conditioned product.
An apparatus for the continuous conditioning of organic material comprising:
- a. a vessel comprising an internal chamber having an entry end with an inlet opening and a exit end with a discharge opening;
- b. an entry pump fluidly connected with the inlet opening for delivering material into the vessel;
- c. an exit valve fluidly connected with the discharge opening for discharge of material from the vessel;
- d. an elongated conveyor positioned within the vessel and capable of conveying material from proximal to the entry end to proximal to the exit end;
- e. wherein the vessel is connectable to a source of pressure and wherein the vessel is connectable to a source of heat;
- f. wherein the vessel is adapted to maintain minimal conditions within the vessel;
- and
- g. whereby material to be conditioned enters the vessel from the entry pump, passes substantially through the cylinder from the entry end to the discharge end, and exits the cylinder through the exit valve.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.