Almost unbelievable savings in water, power, and production costs 8 to 10 minutes household cooking time 1 The Bottom Line Every now and again a new technology appears that truly revolutionises a process within the cereals industry. The innovative new parboiling technology by Canavere Industry and Studio Tecnico Appiani, which reduces the household cooking time to 8 to 10 minutes while at the same time making dramatic savings in production costs, is one of these. Conventional parboiling, as we know, requires about 1200 litres of water to soak one ton of paddy. This water needs to be procured or pumped from a well. The wastewater then needs to be treated, entailing ever increasing costs as environmental rules get stricter. In contrast, the radically new ST.APPIANI technology produces excellent parboiled rice without soaking. The new process requires only 80 litres of water per ton of paddy, reducing your water consumption by an impressive 93%. What is more, consumption of electric power is reduced by over 30% compared to a conventional modern continuous pressure parboiling plant. The cost implications are impressive. If we assume that water costs 3.00 USD / m³ and that wastewater treatment costs 2.70 USD / m³, the revolutionary new technology will reduce your production costs by around 7.00 USD per ton of rice. The reduction in energy consumption results in additional savings of 0.70 USD / ton. For an annual production of 60.000 tons, you save 60.000 m³ of water and wastewater treatment to the benefit of both the environment and your bottom line, amounting to savings of over 400 000 USD per year. And that is not the end of the cost saving story. Further cost reductions in cost are achieved because of the surprisingly small footprint of the plant: at only 150 m² (excl. dryer and boiler) it can reduce your total space and foundation requirement by more than 60%. What is more, as the plant is fully automated, only one skilled supervisor is required, cutting the wage bill. And more good news for your bottom line is that 10-minute rice sells at a higher price than conventional parboiled rice. A new technology that that improves your bottom line by a massive 40% while also reducing household cooking time to 8 to 10 minutes surely deserves to be called revolutionary. 2 The Background Beyond the cost of the paddy itself, the decisive factors in production costs are of course water, the effluent water treatment and electric power. The bad news is that all these costs are expected to increase significantly in the coming years. Water, already a valuable resource, will be in ever shorter supply as a result of both climate change and the increasing intensification of agriculture. The planet has already gained more than one degree since the middle of 19th century. One fifth of the world’s population already has to cope with a precarious water supply, and 500 million more people are threatened. By 2025, the issue of water shortage will impact on even more people, with two thirds of the world’s population predicted to face water stress conditions. At the same time, the cost of water treatment is rising as, all around the world, legislation around environmental protection is becoming ever more stringent. And as growing economies require ever more electric power, the cost of the kWh is likely to increase – even if power is produced from rice husk!
Desiring to make his contribution to reducing global warming, Mr Jean-Louis Benoit, a French rice farmer, and his brilliant team of experts from various backgrounds decided to revolutionize the parboiling technology. Teaming up with the reputed Italian Studio Tecnico Appiani, a world leader in engineering state of the art parboiling plants, they developed a new process that uses less water and less power. The new process not only achieves savings for the parboiling industry but reduces the impact of boiling rice on the environment by shortening the cooking time by a full eight minutes thereby cutting household energy requirements. Families cooking an average 500 g rice meal achieve an accumulated reduction in cooking time of 266 hours for every ton of rice, with a corresponding reduction in energy consumption. 3 The Technology How can all this be possible? The patented Canavere/ST.APPIANI technology is different to any other parboiling process. The process starts with well cleaned dried paddy, which is fed in batches of 800 kg into the central piece of equipment, the patented autoclave. Here, instead of being soaked for a long time in water, the rice is treated for a short time with steam at high pressure. Only 80 litres of water and 2 kWh of power per ton of paddy are required. The innovative technology ensures the perfect balance between temperature, pressure, steam and time. It is economic and environmentally responsible. It also maintains a high nutritional value of the grain and as the process is completely enclosed, insect or any other contamination is avoided.
The starch is gelatinized in a snap transformation. At the same time, the rice becomes slightly porous, leading to a shorter household cooking time.The total cycle time is reduced to four minutes. Finally, the paddy is subjected to a short period of drying. As the paddy has soaked up less water than in the conventional processes, it dries faster, producing additional savings. The colour (e.g. Kett) can be easily adjusted according to market requirements. The equipment has a standard capacity is 10 metric tons per hour, or multiples thereof. It is suitable for a wide range of different types of paddy rice and it is also very compact: the footprint of the parboiling unit is only 150 m². Four years of painstaking research have been invested to create perfect machine efficiency and a perfect parboiled product. The first plant has now been in full commercial operation for six years, processing various types of long grain and medium grain paddy. Both the technology, which originated in Europe, and the equipment, which is manufactured in Europe, are now well proven and ready for the world market. 4 The Results The results of the Canavere technology by Studio Tecnico Appiani speak for themselves. The process achieves an excellent parboiled rice with a cooking time of only 8 to 10 minutes, whose colour can be adjusted from bright to golden-yellow to suit market requirements. At the same time production costs have been dramatically reduced. No wonder the product has already enjoyed great success for six years in European markets. For more information, please contact Studio Tecnico Appiani srl. appiani@stappiani.com or our local representative agent Mr. Ashfaqul Islam at sta.bangladesh@gmail.com ; website https://www.stappiani.com/
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