Pennecon™ - All life is interconnected.

Kemin Aquascience^™ is working toward meeting the needs of the present without compromising opportunities for the future. At Kemin, we believe that organic substances are the best source of nutrients and immunity boosters to improve aquatic species' health. We focus on bringing organic products that create a sustainable and profitable ecosystem to enhance profitability, yield, feed absorption, and quality of aquaculture farms while improving feed milling and storage efficiency.

Moisture loss in Feed Mills – A chronic problem

The mechanical processes in feed mills, understandably, reduce the moisture content in the feed. The process cycle in feed mills – grinding and batching, mixing, conditioning, pelleting, cooling, and bagging - involves intense mechanical processes resulting in approximately 0.5% to 1.5% moisture loss during pellet feed processing grinding to bagging. A conservative estimate puts the value of the financial loss at 400,000 USD as a mill producing 100,000 MT feed a year can lose up to 1,000 MT feed assuming a 1% moisture loss. 

Further, insufficient moisture has the following impact:

• Reduced milling efficiency.  Increased friction due to lower moisture content results in higher energy requirements during milling.
• Reduced access to digestive enzymes. Moisture and heat are critical to the gelatinization of starch during conditioning.  Lack of gelatinization reduces access to access to digestive enzymes
• Reduced pellet durability. Gelatinized starch gives a sticky texture, which helps to adhere the feed particles, thus improving the pellet durability

Use Cases of Pennecon^™

• Aquafeed mills strive to find ways to increase productivity and quality while reducing costs and risks. Pennecon^™ enhances the feed processing efficacy and safety by reducing energy consumption, resulting in increased profit for aquafeed mill operations.
• On average, we observe approximately 0.5% to 1.5% moisture loss during pellet feed processing - from grinding to bagging. The surfactants present in Pennecon^™ effectively reduce water surface tension to promote moisture absorption and retention in the feed.
• Insufficient moisture levels in the feed affect optimum starch gelatinization in the water. Starch gelatinization, promoted by Pennecon™, reduces water's surface tension and improves the moisture adsorption over the feed matrix.
• The addition of water to the feed increases the 'free water' levels in the feed, leading to mold growth. The combination of organic acids and surfactants in Pennecon™ promotes the absorption and binding of added moisture with the feed particles, reducing free water availability to mold growth.

Through innovation, Kemin Aquascience™ is moving the aquaculture value chain from linear to circular.  Pennecon™ is a proprietary organic formulation that improves feed mill efficiency and feed quality and improves the spreadability through its unique surface-active agents.  Our research focuses on developing organic compounds and formulations that enable feed millers to achieve sustainable and profitable operations.

For more information, consult your local Kemin AquaScience™ technical expert, submit your query, and one of our specialists will get back to you as soon as possible.