ASSESSING TRANSPORT SUSCEPTIBILITY OF RAPESEED MEAL FRACTIONATION PRODUCTS

Background: Having considered increasing production of liquid and solid biofuels from rapeseed and bearing in mind its stable and unquestionable position in  the food and animal feed industries, a rational approach towards technologically and logistically efficient utilization of by-products from rapeseed processing is required. The aim of the research presented in the article is to assess the transport susceptibility of rapeseed meal fractions, varying according to particle size and chemical composition.
Methods: Resistance to changes stimulating self-heating has been assumed as the main criterion of transport susceptibility. The following diagnostic variables have been experimentally determined: total protein, crude fat and crude fiber content, porosity, and water activity in the fraction of examined meal. In order to organize a set of particles and to indicate their optimal applications according to criteria chosen with regard to both  utilization and transportation, two aggregate indicators have been calculated.
Results: It has been proved that medium-sized particle fractions (0.075-0.4 mm) exhibit the lowest transport susceptibility, whereas the those with the largest granulations (>3 mm) -have the highest. One significant relationship is the decline of feeding value and concurrent increase in the transport susceptibility of meal fractions, which in practice means that those fractions least-favoured by the animal feed industry can be least cumbersome to transport.
Conclusions: It has been suggested that there should be a division of rapeseed meal into two products with different applications and different transport susceptibility. The fractioning of meal can bring numerous, measurable benefits for the meal industry and logistics processes for solid biofuels, where storage and transport properties have considerable importance, alongside commodity price and transport costs.