Next Generation Rice Processing
Lead Participant:
KOOLMILL SYSTEMS LIMITED
Abstract
Achieving optimal efficiency in the post harvest handling and processing of rice is a ubiquitous challenge for China's agri-food sector. Rice is the staple food of 2/3 of population & it produces c. 1.3bn of quality rice p/a. This is insufficient to meet the aggressive population (13M p/a). This is due to land pressure & inefficient milling process handling resulting in an average 50% grain losses in machine batch processing. There are 6000 medium large mills across China operating at 50-60% efficiency rates. Conventional milling machines are manually operated & have no mechanism to responding to process variants (temperature, machine failures, contaminants) that can result in a whole milled batch being ruined. The project aims to develop a novel digital milling processes, supported by AI software platform that will intuitively respond & adapt to potential process failures, reduce milled waste & inject an additional 3MT of high quality rice (worth an additional £1.2bn to regional farming communities) into Chinese food chain p/a. 100% uptake would deliver 40MT (worth £12M p/a). This will be supported by a new business model, and education programme to support technology uptake and changes in work practice.
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
---|---|---|
KOOLMILL SYSTEMS LIMITED | £205,411 | £ 143,788 |
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Participant |
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JJA PACK LTD | £139,198 | £ 97,439 |
SIEMENS PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY | £74,924 | £ 37,462 |
ASTON UNIVERSITY | ||
NEW-FOOD INNOVATION LTD | £110,156 | £ 77,109 |
COX AND PLANT LIMITED | ||
INNOVATE UK | ||
SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY |
People |
ORCID iD |
Alec Anderson (Project Manager) |