DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY

Next generation rice processing

Project disclaimer

Disclaimer: The data for this page has been produced from IATI data published by DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY. Please contact them (Show Email Address) if you have any questions about their data.

Description

The UK team has engineering innovators at Koolmill, Siemens and Cox & Plant, food scientists and process innovators at New Food Innovation. Academics at Sheffield Hallam University developing AI based control systems with IOT capability & particle separation scientists and business modellers at SHU and Aston Business School. The Chinese team has a rice equipment manufacturer Quzhou, rice processing expertise at China Grain Wuhan Scientific and academics at JiangNan University. The project duration is 24 months with Project Management and Dissemination led by SHU. Established milling equipment by Satake & Buhler has reached a limit. Based on old designs, this rice processing machinery has very limited scope for development. Project description: WP1 Leadership & Project Management Lead: SHU in UK and Quzhou in China. Provision of overall project management with technical programme, budget, risk and compliance management, to deliver on time and to budget. WP2 Digital Milling Lead: Koolmill with SHU, Quzhou and Wuhan, will transform Koolmills existing "analogue" system, creating smart milling and the world's first digital fully connected rice mill. A pilot mill will be established at the Quzhou facility. Performance, connectivity, remote data capture and data analytics will be validated by Wuhan & Jiangnan. WP3 Transport and separation Lead: Cox & Plant. Delivers novel, low damage method for conveying rice, simultaneously separating rice, fines, brokens, bran, and husk. New efficient vertical conveyor will reduce damage & raise reliability. Controllable vibration technology offers on demand feeding to machines avoiding the need for large storage. Cox & Plant are leaders in vibration technology and will work with academics at SHU to develop new advanced systems for rice processors. WP4 Scenario Testing Lead: Jiangnan University. Evaluation of process variants (removal of Mycotoxins, temperature monitoring, equipment failure, milling adjustments). Jiangnan have wide expertise in processing cereal and Mycotoxins. Supported by Koolmill and Quzhou, this WP will exploit the enhanced controllability of these variants to inform AI systems, to apply diagnostic processes to multiple crop variants and support technology transfer. WP5 IoT Platform Lead: Siemens - who bring global excellence & expertise in data capture and AI in engineering processes. Supported by Koolmill and SHU researchers, machine and mill data from the Koolmill demonstrator will be captured and connect to a secure cloud based platform. With data analytics, AI, machine learning, auto-tuning and digital twins make real time management decision tools to operators, to optimise mill management and production. WP6 Process Implementation and Training Lead: New Food Innovation. NFI have expertise in communicating new products in challenging markets. They will utilise a multi-platform approach, including "gamification," milling data, training, demonstrations, piloting, 3D Models, simulations and augmented reality to shift this embedded culture. WP7 Economic Analysis and Development of the Chinese Market Lead: Aston. Make the technology accessible, from conventional sales to Advanced Manufacturing Services (AMS) business model. Aston is globally recognised as a leader in AMS and Wuhan has unrivaled expertise of Chinese rice. The development of AMS, "pay as you mill" business model mitigates two major barriers to adoption of the technology (1) the perceived technology risk - the technology risk passes to Quzhou and (2) the perceived Capex Cost - moving the cost from capex to opex. This WP is linked to WP5 and the ability to remotely control machines. WP8 Exploitation & Dissemination Lead: SHU. This WP reports the key outcomes from the project and maximises the dissemination and IP from the project outcomes through national networks.

Objectives

The Newton Fund builds research and innovation partnerships with developing countries across the world to promote the economic development and social welfare of the partner countries.

---

Location

The country, countries or regions that benefit from this Programme.

China

Disclaimer: Country borders do not necessarily reflect the UK Government's official position.