March 19, 2014
Pellet Technology USA announces award of feed pellet patent
The US Patent Office has awarded Pellet Technology USA (PTUSA) a patent for the process of using agricultural residue biomass to produce livestock feed pellets.
PTUSA, a particle sizing, biomass densification and technology licensing company, was awarded patent 8,551,549. The patent is for a process to create feed pelletsfrom agricultural residues such as corn stover (the stalks, leaves and cobs of corn) or wheat straw.
"This latest patent is an integrated platform in connection with our technology that allows agricultural residue to be developed into a nutritious feed source for the livestock industry," said Russ Zeeck, founder and chief operating officer of PTUSA.
The patent covers one of the technologies in PTUSA''s process for creating feed pellets from agricultural residue. It further covers the harvesting, baling, shredding, grinding and processing components. This patent allows PTUSA to diversify itself from other residue treatments due to the specific manufacturing requirements necessary to produce a consistent finished feed.
"Our commercial demonstration facility located in Gretna, Nebraska allows us to have a research and development base to create additional agricultural residue outputs as we see the needs for solutions to accelerate," said Zeeck.
This "densified feed" is conceptually similar to today''s livestock feed rations, can effectively be used to improve nutrition and eliminate the need to handle and process large amounts of raw feedstocks for livestock producers. Innovation of this kind reduces volatility during times of commodity fluctuation. Being able to use more agricultural residue as feed sources is a win-win for agricultural and livestock producers.