NFE 206: LECTURE 4

Raw material processing: Milling

 Introduction
 Milling is a process which uses a device called “mill” that
helps in breaking/disintegrating solid materials into smaller
pieces by grinding, crushing or cutting.
 Grinding may serve the following purposes in engineering
 Increasing the surface area of a solid
 Manufacturing of solid with a desired grain size
 Pulping of materials
 Milling of Wheat
 This involves a progressive series of disintegrations
followed by sieving
 The disintegrations are carried out by rollers set
progressively closer and closer together
 The first roller break open the bran and free the germ from
the endosperm
 The second and third rollers further crush the brittle
endosperm and flatten out the more semiplastic germ.
 The flakes of bran and flattened germ are removed by the
sieves
 The pulverized endosperm is run through successive rollers
set still closer together to grind it into finer and finer flour
 as the flour is progressively milled, it becomes whiter in
color, better in bread-making quality, but lower in vitamin
and mineral content.
 Milling Of Rice
 Rice milling begins with whole grains of rice being fed by
machine between abrasive disks or moving rubber belts.
 These machines are known as shellers or hullers which
remove the outer layer of hull from the underlying kernels.
 the kernels, which is known as brown rice, is then move to
another abrasive device called a rice-milling machine.
 Inside the rice milling machine, remaining inner layers of
bran and germ are removed by the rubbing action of a
ribbed rotor.
 The endosperms with bran and germ removed can now be
further polished to a white, high glossy finish.
 Milling Of Corn
 Like the other cereal grains, corn is milled to remove hulls
and germ.
 Corn is milled in two basic ways;

- dry milling and

- wet milling.
 Dry milling of corn
 Corn kernels are first conditioned to about 21% moisture
 They are then passed between special rotating cones. It
loosen the hulls and germ from the endosperm.
 The entire mixture is next dried to about 15% moisture to
facilitate subsequent roller milling and sieving.
 The hulls may now be removed by jets of air.
 The endosperm and loosened germs are passed through
rollers that flatten the germ and crush the more brittle
endosperm.
 Sieving then easily separates the flattened germ from the
endosperm particles.
 After that the endosperm may be passed through finer
rollers and reduced to corn flour.
 Wet milling of corn
 After the corn kernels are cleaned, the first step in wet
milling is steeping the kernels in large tanks of warm water.
 Generally the water contains acid and sulfur dioxide as a
mild preservative.
 The softened kernels are next run through an attrition mill to
break up the kernels.
 The pasty mass from this mill is then pumped to water-filled
tank where it can settle.
 In the settling tank, the lighter-density rubbery germ floats to the top
and is skimmed off to be pressed for oil
 The slurry now contains the hulls and the protein and starch fractions
of the endosperm.
 The water slurry is passed through screens that remove the hulls.
 The remaining water slurry containing the starch and protein fractions
is now passed through high-speed centrifuges to separate the heavier
starch from the lighter protein.
 The starch fraction obtained is used to make several products such as
Corn starch, corn gluten, corn syrup etc
 Types Of Mill
 There are a large number of mills available for specific
types of food.
 A summary of the types of discs and their characteristics
are given below:
Type Of Mill Type Of Force Product
Pin and disc mill Impact Sugar, starch, cocoa
powder
Wing beater mill Impact & shear paprika
Disc beater mill Impact & shear Milk powder

Vertical toothed Shear Plastic material

disc mill
Cutting granulator Impact & shear Dry fruit &
vegetable
Hammer mill Impact Dried mil
Ball mill Impact & shear Food colors
Roller mill Compression and wheat
shear