Tapioca starch is the most basic and important processing product of cassava. It is not only used in food processing industry, but also widely used in metallurgy, mining, construction, textile, cosmetics, toothpaste and paper industry. Especially in recent years, with the advent of modified starch, tapioca starch is increasingly favored by consumers. At the same time, starch producers are also expanding their investment in adding cassava starch processing plants.
However, investors' lack of awareness of tapioca starch processing equipment and equipment manufacturers' insufficient attention to technological improvement and improvement have hindered their global promotion and application to some extent. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research and analysis of the status quo of the world's tapioca starch processing equipment and provide consumers with a guiding opinion.
1. Current status of the world tapioca starch processing industry
At present, the main characteristics of the world cassava starch processing industry are as follows:
(1) Scale of investment. State investment or multinational group investment is very large, and the output of fresh cassava processed per hour is between 20 and 30 tons. Moreover, this large-scale project accounts for a large proportion of the total investment in the cassava starch project.
(2) Technology concentration. Hovex in the Netherlands and ISI in Denmark represent the advanced technology of the world's tapioca starch equipment. The tapioca starch equipment in India, China, Thailand and Brazil is quite different.
The level of technology is a key factor affecting investors' choice of equipment. Judging from the import situation of cassava starch equipment in many countries in recent years, several Dutch Hovex and Danish ISI have the most equipment, which confirms the obvious existence of its technical advantages.
(3) Market regionalization. The international market for tapioca starch equipment is gradually divided into three regions: West Africa, Southeast Asia and Brazil.
As world investors invest more in the African market, West African countries have become an obvious investment hotspot. Among them, Nigeria and Ghana are particularly prominent. In the past two years, almost all investors investing in these two countries have come from developed countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and Australia.
2. The main manufacturer of world tapioca starch processing equipment
The main manufacturers of tapioca starch equipment are Hovex in the Netherlands, ISI in Denmark, TGP in Thailand, EBS in Brazil, ZJSE in China and UPE in India.
3. Comparison of equipment technology of major manufacturers
In 2005, the African Cassava Promotion Organization summarized and compared the technical data of the tapioca starch equipment that can process 3t starch per hour.
In addition to starch yield, water and power consumption are two important parameters that determine processing efficiency. In this regard, Danish ISI and Dutch Hovex consume less, while Brazil's EBS and Thailand's TGP consume more. The fractionation section usually includes two processes of centrifugation and swirling. EBS in Brazil and TGP in Thailand use centrifugation, in which EBS uses 3 centrifugation for fine extraction and dehydration, while TGP uses 2 centrifugation, which allows for higher quality products.
Although Hovex of the Netherlands says that their fractions include centrifugation, and after the swirling process, better separation of starch granules and fibers can be achieved. It turns out that this process can be achieved, the centrifuge will pull out the starch and fiber, but careful control of the countercurrent of the water, which may cause the fiber to "carry out", especially in the cyclone separation, the fiber will spin The top of the stream is discharged and the starch will flow out from below the swirl.
In short, ISI in Denmark and Hovex in the Netherlands are technically famous.
Thailand's TGP is close to the third, but its water and power consumption is large. These three impressions are that the quality of the equipment and technical support provided are better (including the centrifugal separator provided by Westalia, Germany).
Hovex uses fewer processing steps than other competitors, so it uses less equipment. This makes Hovex less expensive to repair, which should be their main advantage.
In addition, Hovex's processing links are less relevant, initially giving the impression that processing is not sufficient compared to other suppliers. However, Hovex stated that their extraction and refining are more skillful than others, so less processing is required.
Although the processing of Hovex is simple, the quality of their products is very high. One problem Hovex had to face was the need to provide users with additional explanations to explain their "deficiency" in cassava processing. Hovex uses a combination of centrifugal separation and swirling in the refining section. They explained that the downstream swirling process would achieve better separation of starch granules from the fiber than centrifugal separation, so a better final product would be obtained.
Hovex extracts fine fibers that are separated by steam that is split side by side, which means they can only process small flows compared to other competitors using dry-flow steam processing. Another major advantage of Hovex is its low water consumption.
Finally, from the comprehensive use of steam, water consumption, emissions, power, equipment price, floor space, labor required, etc., Holland's Hovex has obvious advantages, followed by Denmark's ISI, Once again for China's ZJSE and India's UPE, and finally for Brazil's EBS and Thailand's TGP. Among them, China's ZJSE is far less well-known in the world than other manufacturers, and it needs to increase its publicity efforts in the future.
4. Reasons for affecting the promotion and application of tapioca starch equipment
Although the target market for tapioca starch equipment is very clear, its promotion and application have great resistance. The main factors are as follows:
(1) High investment costs. Investment costs mainly include raw material sources, equipment investment and other necessary processing costs, such as steam, water, electricity, land and labor used. The investment in the tapioca starch project is generally relatively large, which is the main reason why many investors are “obsessedâ€.
(2) Investors lack awareness of starch equipment. Mainly due to the lack of technical knowledge, the evaluation of the project before investment is long.
(3) The sales channel of tapioca starch products is not smooth, and it is also a key factor. Many investors have concerns about the sale of starch products when they choose projects.
(4) A considerable number of manufacturers pay insufficient attention to the improvement and improvement of cassava starch equipment technology. The gap between equipment performance and processing technology and the world's advanced level is large, which has caused most investors to use the world's advanced equipment to reduce the risk of investment. This has made it even more difficult for the market development of intermediate level equipment.
(5) The manufacturer of tapioca starch equipment has insufficient research on the target market, which has made its market entry difficult.
5. Development trend of tapioca starch equipment
In the coming period, imported equipment will be dominated by advanced equipment from developed countries, and technological advantages will remain the main factor affecting investors' choice of equipment.
The intermediate level of cassava starch equipment manufacturers need to further strengthen the improvement and improvement of technology to shorten the gap with advanced equipment in developed countries. At the same time, it is necessary to increase publicity so that more consumers can recognize or understand the equipment performance and processing technology of the enterprise, and finally achieve the goal of improving the technical level of the overall tapioca starch industry and promoting the development of the tapioca starch industry.