FREE FLOWING FEED GRADE CHOLINE CHLORIDE POWDER WITH NUTRITIVE FAT BASED CARRIER
Background of the invention
Choline is a member of the group consisting of the vitamins of B complex and is widely used for enriching animal feeds. Choline is mostly added to feeds in the form of its chloride salt namely Choline Chloride. Choline is a structural part of lecithin and sphingomycerin. Choline appears to be required in metabolism of fats and its deficiency can. lead to fatty livers, hemorrhage kidneys or perosis in chickens.
The pure Choline Chloride is an extremely hygroscopic substance, Anhydrous samples obtained by crystallization from organic solvents or by evaporation, become deliquescent within a few hours by absorbing moisture from atmosphere. Although available in crystalline powder form of 98% approx. purity, it is difficult to use the chemical in pure form as a feed component due to its hygroscopic nature. Hie product is also available as an aqueous solution of 75% to 85% strength however choline chloride is a minor ingredient in the total compound feed mixture and it is not possible to disperse an acquous minor component hαmogenously throughout the feed with normal equipment employed for such mixing.
Therefore commonly Choline Chloride is added in a diluted dry form as 50 to 60% of a mixture based on an inert morgamc / organic carrier. Silica, bentonite. etc. are the inorganic carriers commonly used for this purpose, whereas corn cob flour, rice husk flour, etc. are the common organic carriers. US Patent 4,820,532 by Bayer, et al describes the use of silica carrier. The
problem of high silica carrier for choline chloride has been addressed by prior inventors. US Patent 5,486,363 by Kiefer, et al describes the use of hydrophobic carrier such as silicic acid. US Patent 5,766,668 by Bromme ek, et al describes a mixture of hygroscopic βxcipient and hydrobphobic adjuvant used in combination as a carrier. However, the common element in both these inventions is the use of hydrophobic substances which are very costly, and their only function is to counter the hygroscopicity of choline chloride to keep it in free flowing condition, for it to be evenly mixed in the animal feed. These inorganic/organic carriers either have no nutritive value or a negligible nutritional value, and they infact add to the cost of freight and processing of choline chloride.
For above reasons, it would be more beneficial if such inorganic/organic carriers are used along with choline chloride that have their own nutritive value, thus contributing to the energy density of the compounded feed, and lowering the effective cost of choline chloride supplementation to the feed. The present invention addresses this issue.
The present livestock and poultry owners expect faster growth and better food conversion ratio from their feeds. This requirement of higher energy is met in one way by supplementing the feed with additional fats, either as oils or iα solid foimlt is thus common for feed composition to have fats and choline chloride both present at the same time. The main feature of this invention is to replace the traditional non- nutritive / less nutritive or expensive carriers for choline chloride by the very nutritive solid fat of the type that is already an ingredient of most types of feeds.
Some mention has been made, in above cited patents of use of fatty acid salt fatty acids etc. in formulation of choline feed precursors, but their incorporation has hitherto been for providing lubricating properties during processing, and therefore the fat content available in the end product is zero or negligible.
The present invention departs from the past practices by utilizing predominantly fat based compounds as carriers for choline chloride feed additive. The fat is effectively at no additional cost as the carrier due to the nutritional energy that it imparts to the feed independently. This avoids the unnecessary cost of non-nutritive carrier, with no value in the feed, In f ct any non-nutritive carrier is an impurity in die feed.
Fat is commonly used in all types of feeds in much larger quantities than the amount of fat minimally necessary to be added to the choline chloride to derive benefits of such addition as per the invention. Therefore the minimal quantities of fat carrier for choline chloride will provide only a partial requirement of total fat in the feed, thus leaving a balance to be added separately to make a appropriate dosage of oils in the feed, However, the quantity of fat and or other energy source ingredient required to be separately added can be proportionally reduced by the quantum of fat that is present in the form of carrier of choline chloride. The present invention therefore produces more potent, economical and qualitatively better feed as compared to presently available feeds using Choline Chlorides.
It is also possible to premix the entire quantity of fat and choline chloride requirements of the feed as shown in one example below. This mixture has the virtue of being completely free from any non-nutritive carriers like silica, etc.
Description of the invention
The present invention relates to the use of Fat based Compound as major ingredient in carriers for choline chloride, the choline chloride feed additive thus obtained, and the process for manufacturing the said feed additive.
The preferred embodiment of the invention uses spray chilled prilled vegetable based fats which are solid at normal temperatures, and having a slip melting point of 50-65° C. Such fats are a mixtare of fatty acids/ hydrogenated fatty acids, consisting of Myr c, Palmitic, Stearic, Oleic, Linoleic and Linoleinic acids and their triglyeerides. Other solid fat based compounds from vegetable/animal origins ee taiπing saturated unsaturated fatty acids, their mono-, di-, triglyeerides and their salts or hydrogenated product can also be used in different embodiment of the invention. It is common knowledge that use of such solid fats is much preferred to the use of oils in liquid / slurry form as a source of fat, because the miscibility and dispersion of liquid fat requires special equipment and is unreliable. The fat and choline chloride mixture as per the invention is free-flowing.
The hygroscopic excipient can be selected from a group of compounds consisting of calcium oxide, silicon oxide, anhydrous sodium sulphate, zeolites, molecular sieves, bentonite, etc., and a mixture thereof or can also include organic hygroscopic substances such as milled corn cob, rice husk, etc. in the preferred embodiment of the invention, precipitated spray-dried silica having a particle size from 50 mus. m. to 150 mus. m., which are commercially available, are used. The Hydrophobic adjuvant is either hydrophobic silica? hydrophobic feed grade polymer or a mixture thereof. The
preferred embodiment of the invention uses silanized hydrophobic silica which is commercially available,
With use of crystalline 98% choline chloride, the process of manufacturing as per the present invention is very simple. The raw materials are slowly and gently mixed in required proportion to a homogenous state, and then screened in a current of dehumidified air. The ingredients can be mixed in any order and the individual raw materials can either be added in lots or proportionally dosed.
In the preferred embodiments of the invention described in the following examples, the hygroscopic precipitated silica is mixed with half the required quantity of the solid fat, followed by the addition of solid 98% choline chloride and mixing for 1045 minutes, the other half of the solid fat is then added and further mixing for 5-10 minutes is done. In some formulations small quantities of silanized silica are added to increase the choline percentage of the compounds. The final mixing is for 5-10 minutes. A slow paddle type/Ribbon bender or a double cone blender is the mixer of choice. The above material is screened in a closed vibratory screening machine with screens for separating the oversize/undersize material, which are recycled. A slow current of dehumidified air using a PSA type gas dryer/deliiimidifier is purged into the vibrator to absorb any free moisture and provide a low humidity atmosphere during the screening condition The screened material is then packed.
Aqueous solution of 75% to 85% choline chloride can also be - used. The liquid choline chloride is sprayed and mixed with the hygroscopic precipitated silica and dried at 80 to 150° C. The drying of the silica-choline mixture can be done separately or it can be dried in the fluidized bed processor/coator- granulator. The solid fat is molten by preheating and converted
into a liquid, which is sprayed on the above cooled mixture at 25-30° C to coat the particles. The air supplied for fluidizatioπ is cooled, predried and dehumidified using a PSA type gas dryer/dehumidified before entering the fluid bed processor/coator-granulator. Small quantities of hydrophobic adjuvant can be added to the fat melt before spraying the fat to improve flow characteristics of the final product, if required. Hydrophobic adjuvants are effective but costly carrier components, and the present invention employs them in much smaller percentages than known to the art.
Example 1
4 kgs of precipitated silica (sipemat 22) is properly mixed with 3.1 kgs of finely prilled solid vegetable based fat (99,5% fat content and having gross energy 9000 Kcal/kg approx.) and having a melt slip point of 55 C and fatty acid profile which consists of Myristic acid 1.12%, Palmitic acid 62.67%, Stearic acid 27.90%, Laurie acid 0.11%, Oleic acid 6.24% and Linoleic acid 1.33% to form a carrier mixture. 10.25 Kgs of Solid Choline chloride 98% is then added to the carrier mixture, which is men blended for 10 minutes. A further quantity of 3.1 kgs of above fat compound is men added and blending is continued for another 5-10 minutes.
The mixed material is screened through 60 mesh ASTM (0,25 mm width aperture) screen in a closed vibratory screen with dehumidified air atmosphere to get 19.8 kgs. of free flowing Choline Chloride Feed Additive having 50% Choline Chloride content, 30% Fat content and having a Gross Energy of 2670 Kcal Kg approx.(based on Gross Energy of 8900 Kcal per Kg. ofFat).
Example 2
1.65 kgs of precipitated silica (sipemat 22) is properly mixed with 2.6 kgs of finely prilled solid vegetable based fat (99.5% fat content and having gross energy 9000 Kcal kg approx.) and having a melt slip point of 55° C and fatty acid profile which consists of Myristic acid 1.12%, Palmitic acid 62.67%, Stearic acid 27.90%, Laurie acid 0.11%, Olβic acid 6.24% and Linoleic acid 1.33% to form a carrier mixture. 1 .25 Kgs of crystalline Choline chloride 98% is then added and the mixture is blended for 10 minutes. An additional 2.6 kgs of fat compound is added to the above mixture and blending is continued for another 5-10 minutes.
The mixed material is screened through 60 mesh ASTM (0.25 mm width aperture) screen in a closed vibratory screen with dehumidified air atmosphere to get 16,5 kgs, of free flowing Feed Additive having a Choline Chloride content of 60% , 30% Fat eontent and having a Gross Energy of 2670 Kcal g approx, (based on Gross Energy of 8900 Kcal per Kg. of Fat).
Example 3
11,75 Kgs of liquid chloine chloride 85% is sprayed and mixed with 1.1 kgs of spray-dried precipitated silica (Sipemat 22) in a suitable blender and the mixture is dried in a fluid bed dryer at 120° C to form part i.
Separately, 5.25 Kgs of solid vegetable fat (99.5% fat content and having gross energy 9000 Kcal kg approx) having a melt slip point of 55° C and fatty acid profile which consists of Myristic acid 1.12%, Palmitic acid 62.67%, Stearic acid 27.90%, Laurie acid 0.11%, Oleic acid 6.24% and Linoleic acid
1,33% is heated to 80° C and mixed with 0,10 Kg of hydrophobic silanized silica (MFIL/TS grade) to form part 2,
The fluidized silica-choline mix of part 1 above is sprayed in a fluid bed processor/coator-granulator by the wet mixture of fat and silanized silica of part 2 above, at temperature of 25-30° C at the rate of 0.250 Kgs mm. Cooled predried, dehumidified air at 20° C is used for fluidizing the mixture. The mixed material is screened through 60 mesh ASTM (0.25 mm width aperture) screen in a closed vibratory screen with dehumidified air atmosphere to get 15.5 Kgs of free flowing feed Additive having a Choline Chloride content of 61%, 32% Fat content and Gross Energy of 2850 Kcal Kg appprox. (based on Gross Energy of 8900 Kcal per Kg. of Fat) is thus obtained.
Example 4
0.5 Kgs of Solid Choline chloride 98% is properly mixed with 20 kgs of finely prilled solid vegetable based fat (99,5% fat content and having gross energy 9000 Kcal kg approx.) and having a melt slip point of 55° C and fatty acid profile which consists of Myristic acid 1.12%, Palmitic acid 62.67%, Stearic acid 27.90%, Laurie acid 0.11%, Oleic acid 6.24% and Linoleic acid 1.33% to form a carrier mixture, which is blended for 20 minutes.
The mixed material is screened through 60 mesh ASTM (0.25 mm width aperture) screen in a closed vibratory screen with dehumidified air atmosphere to get 20.5 kgs. of free flowing Choline Chloride Feed Additive having 3% Choline Chloride content, 97% Fat content and having a Gross Energy of 8680 Kcal Kg approx.(based on Gross Energy of 8900 Kcal per Kg. ofFat).
h the last example the admixture of choline chloride and fat has no other ingredients, it is free flowing and also having a high calorific value. The ratio of choline chloride / fat in this mixture is nearly the same (1 :40) as their ideal ratio in a typical feed mixture. The fat is capable of diluting the entire typical dosage of choline chloride effectively without any other excipients or adjuvants. There is absolutely no cost of any filler such as silicas etc in this formulation.
In yet other embodiments of the invention, corncobs or rice husk are used to partially replace hygroscopic silica at lesser cost.
The above discussion and examples illustrate the application and use of the invention However since many variations can be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, any such obvious deviations are within the scope of the present invention