Deashing Of Fishmeal For Aquaculture Feed

The goal of this project is to develop a separator that will improve the nutritional quality offishmeal and reduce the pollutants in the effluent streams from fish feed used in aquaculture.High nutritional value and the well-balanced protein composition makes fishmeal an importantfeed ingredient in aquaculture. The digestibility of fishmeal has been improved through thedevelopment of more sensible drying technologies. However, the feed value can be furtherimproved by reduction of the ash (bone) content. A high ash content lowers the digestibility ofthe feed, and the indigestible fraction, in particular phosphorous, creates an effluent dischargeproblem.Several screening technologies have been developed for reducing the ash content. However, theefficiencies of these processes are limited due to similarities in particle size. The proposed air-separation will sort based on particle size, density, surface roughness and particle shape. Themeat particles will have a lower density, more irregular surfaces, and a shape resulting in ahigher drag coefficient than bone particles thereby promoting separation efficiency.