Extrusion at the core of multidisciplinary product development

With new research discoveries and extrusion technologies, the sky is the limit for innovative food and feed applications and bio-based products for the circular economy.

With ongoing research discoveries and advancements in extrusion technologies, the possibilities for innovative applications in food, feed, and bio-based products for the circular economy are boundless.

Extrusion is at the core of many food and feed production processes. Extruders, equipped with rotating screws within a cylinder, heat, mix, homogenize, modify, and compress materials. Food extruders generate cereals, flakes, flour, snacks, pasta, protein preparations, and meat substitutes, while feed extruders produce food for fish and pets.

The Natural Resources Institute Finland started using extrusion technology in 2001, focusing on fish feed production with a twin-screw extruder. Seven years ago, a second twin-screw extruder was acquired for food applications. 

In 2022, Luke installed a powerful multi-screw extruder (Planetary Roller Extruder), propelling the Luke’s extrusion center into new application areas.

Driving the circular economy with extrusion

Extrusion plays a pivotal role in driving the circular bioeconomy at Luke. The aim is to increasingly employ multi-screw extrusion in circular economy applications, utilizing side streams from annual plants to develop a variety of value-added products.

An illustrative example is a product development approach where by-products from oat cultivation were utilized to create organic matter, humus. Humus enhances soil structure, preserves nutrients, and sequesters carbon. The carbon dioxide within plant matter can be captured in products, prolonging its retention compared to burning.

Our future objective is to extend this approach beyond oats, encompassing various annual plant materials, blending and modifying them into products through the same mechanical process.

Reactive biomass is produced by the extrusion of plant by-products. Diverse products, such as organic fertilizer pellets, moldable composites, plastic shells, packaging materials, foams, or adhesives, can be produced out of the reactive biomass through chemical reactions.

What can extrusion be used for?

• For the production of novel raw materials such as powders, granules, snacks, flakes, foodstuffs and wet mixtures used in foodstuffs, food supplements, confectionery, cosmetics, animal feed and additives.
• For the modification of materials by altering the behavior of fractions, such as starch and protein.
• For the production of new structures (e.g., crunchy structures without high levels of starch, i.e., carbohydrates).
• For enzyme reactions with the multi-screw extruder serving as a bioreactor.
• For the use of agricultural, forestry, fisheries, and food industry side streams into new value-added products.
• For releasing constituents (e.g., release of lignin from a fiber complex).
• To produce reactive masses from which biomaterials, composites, packaging materials, and fertilizers can be derived through chemical reactions.
• For solvent extraction processes.
• For opening structures and coating sensitive products, e.g., with fat.
• For the production of well-known products, such as ice cream or chocolate, using new technologies.

From extrusion to efficiency in production processes

Pilot-scale product development using extrusion technology can be scaled up to a larger production scale.

Multi-screw extrusion can significantly improve the efficiency of production processes. The solutions produced can reduce unit operations, and processes can take place with less water and in more energy-efficient environments.