Energy is the vital need of mankind and it is the priceless gift offered by the nature. Apart from food, we need lots of energy in various forms in our day-to-day life. At present, most of our energy requirements are fulfilled by non-renewable sources. The most extensively used nonrenewable energy sources are fossil fuels. As we all know that energy can neither be created nor it can be destroyed, it can only be converted from one form to the other. So it is time to realize the importance of energy and the difficulty in tapping the energy from geological reserves. Man needs to think of “renewable” as replenishing only in the right circumstances and within the laws of the balance of nature so as to allow the natural ecological cycles to remain natural, and not mess with Mother Nature.

As the need is the mother of discovery, the foreseeing energy crisis has induced interest in the synthesis of bio-fuel. The global consumption of liquid petroleum will increase tremendously in the coming years. It is estimated that if the present trend continues, the energy demand is projected to grow by more than 50% by 2025. Most importantly, unlimited demand for limited petroleum resources cannot be a satisfactory option for a long time. Therefore, before things slip out of our hands, we must start working towards bringing transition from the non-renewable carbon source to renewable bio-resources. The corn to ethanol concept can be a roadmap in this regard.

Corn & Rice are the most important and economical source of starch, comprising about 68-72% of kernel weight, which is easily converted into glucose and fermented into ethanol. These are the major crops after wheat that provide food, feed, and fodder to the livestock and serves as a source of basic raw materials for a number of industrial products mainly starch, corn oil, corn syrup, alcoholic beverages, cosmetics, bio-fuel, and many more.

The production of ethanol from corn & Rice is a multistep process that includes:

Grain unloading, storage & cleaning; milling, flour handling, flour storage & weighing; Cooking, liquefaction, saccharification & fermentation; distillation & ethanol storage.

Grinding or Milling is the most important process in ethanol production; as achieving desired particle size with minimum operating cost not only helps in a good yield of ethanol but also reduces the cost of enzyme dosing. For Grinding hammer mill is used, the hammers are attached to rods that turn on a rotor. As the rotor turns, the feed (corn in this case) is hammered against the wall. A screen at the bottom allows particles that are small enough to leave the unit and keep in the larger particles to continue to be hammered until all the material is in the correct size range. The grinding helps to break the tough outer coatings of the corn kernel, which will increase the surface area of the starch. Once the corn is broken down, it is mixed with heated water to form a mash or slurry.

Particle size should be appropriate for best results; the particles have to be small enough to yield high water access, but they should not be too small so that they cause problems in the recovery of co-products.

Lark hammer mill is performing well in terms of particle size, noise, vibration, maintenance cost, and power consumption per ton of grinding. Feedback of particle size from a few of our clients is as mentioned:

Output & particle size of the Grinder given above is feedback only on standard raw material & standard operating conditions, and it may vary as per quality & moisture content of raw material, conditions of hammer & screen, operating parameters, etc.

Due to our commitment to quality and consistent effort in research and development, the company and its technology have received acceptance from each customer. This perfect knowledge of the process gives our customers the assurance to achieve satisfactory performance as to the capacity, quality of the finished product, or equipment reliability.

Though we have supplied several milling machines in livestock and other related industry in India & abroad, we are naming here a few clients (Grain Based Distilleries) with brief details:

Disclaimer: -* Please note that the output of the Grinder given above is indicative, and depends on other factors also, such as Material characteristics, the Moisture content in the Maize, Synchronization with other supporting machines.