These liquid enzymes are produced in water with addition of stabilizing substances and are delivered in IBCs to the feed mill. However, using liquid enzymes poses challenges, in particular in summer conditions, on stability of these liquid enzymes, requiring temperature controlled transport and storage.
Instant water soluble enzyme powders
The basic thought of this is quite simple: why do we not produce liquid enzymes in the feed mill itself? This was the question which led to the development of the Huvematic® concept by Huvepharma®. This concept has two parts.
- the development of water soluble enzyme powders (WSP)
- the development of a tool to automatically produce liquid enzymes on demand at the feed mill production.
Firstly, Huvepharma®'s knowhow on production and processing of enzymes has led to the development of a range of instant water soluble enzyme powders (WSPs) like Hostazym® X WSP (NSPase), OptiPhos® WSP and Hostazym® P WSP (phytases). These products are 50-150 times more concentrated that the usually available enzyme powders and are soluble even in cold and hard water within 30 seconds (Figure 1).
Secondly, a tool called the Huvematic® has been developed in collaboration with external partners to automatically produce liquid enzymes out of the WSP powder in batches of 5 to 15 litres. This equipment accurately weighs the required quantities of WSP enzymes and water and mixes them together so the liquid enzyme is produced at the right concentration. This equipment can be fully integrated into the factory production with its automatization and reporting system, to completely comply with quality control and traceability standards. One Huvematic® has enough production capacity to serve multiple PPLA lines within the same feed mill.
Worldwide implementation
This recent innovation by Huvepharma® is new in most areas of the world, however it is already common practice for more than six years in the US where it is intensively used. Large broiler integrators in the US have embraced this technology to avoid inconveniences related to liquid enzymes in IBCs. This success has encouraged Huvepharma® to launch the concept of the WSP enzymes globally in 2014 and has led to the installation of this concept in different countries of the EU (France, Spain, UK, Ireland), but also in countries like Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Ukraine and Bangladesh. Installations in many other countries are forseen for the near future.
Major benefits which have been communicated by customers include having freshly prepared enzymes and having no worry about activity loss of the liquid enzyme due to storage time and conditions. Also, the ability to produce any desired enzyme concentration is considered advantageous. The plant manager/production leader's appreciation of this concept is linked to having no more IBCs to be stored, replaced and manipulated, saving storage space and labour costs.
This article originally appeared in Kraftfutter Magazine, 2018, 3-4.
