15–16 T/H Aquafeed Production Line in Vietnam

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The Product Mix Justifies a Multi-Route Factory

The commercial case comes from Vietnam’s large aquaculture industry and the customer’s own 100,000 T/Y sales plan rather than from one forecast growth percentage.

Shrimp and pangasius farming create demand for different feed forms, while intensive production puts more pressure on water stability, pellet consistency, digestibility and feed-conversion performance. A modern aquafeed mill has to control those physical properties as carefully as formula composition.

For shrimp feed, product integrity in water is one of the main buyer checks. The project therefore gives fine grinding, conditioning and binding more importance than simply increasing pellet-mill throughput.

The project site covers about 75,133 m², or roughly 18.6 acres, in a coastal production region with road access to ingredient supply and aquaculture customers. The project was planned in two stages:

• Phase 1: Shrimp feed (40,000 T/Y) plus sinking fish feed (40,000 T/Y)
• Phase 2: Floating extruded feed (20,000 T/Y)

Total finished-feed capacity is 100,000 T/Y. At 6,480 scheduled hours, the average required output is about 15.4 T/H, which is why the completed factory is positioned in the 15–16 T/H class.

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The Ingredient Plan Totals About 99,850 T/Y

The ingredient system combines imported and locally sourced protein meals, grain by-products, starches, minerals and oils. The listed dry and liquid ingredients total about 99,850 T/Y; process water, steam and small formulation adjustments close the finished-feed mass balance toward the 100,000 T/Y product program.

The annual purchasing basis is:

Fish-meal control: Protein, freshness, fat and moisture can vary between suppliers, so incoming lots are sampled and formula adjustments are based on laboratory or rapid-analysis data. The production line does not depend on one assumed protein value for every delivery.

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Four Downstream Lines Share the Common Front End

The main aqua feed plant equipment was shipped as a large multi-section package, creating an aqua feed plant in Vietnam with one shared upstream preparation system. The factory uses common receiving, coarse grinding, batching and mixing, then divides into four downstream lines:

• 2 lines for shrimp and sinking fish feed using pelletizing technology
• 2 lines for floating fish feed using extrusion technology

The feed factory machines are sized by section duty rather than by one overall 15–16 T/H number:

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Three Product Families Need Three Different Process Windows

The main challenge in a 15–16 T/H aquafeed production line in Vietnam is not simply making different pellet diameters. Shrimp pellets, sinking fish feed and floating extrudate need different particle sizes, conditioning, density control and post-processing.

Shrimp Feed (40,000 T/Y):
Shrimp feed uses fine grinding and extended conditioning so small pellets maintain sufficient integrity during handling and immersion. Typical finished diameters are around 1.2–2.5 mm depending on species and growth stage.

Engineering control: Conditioning time, steam addition and binder response are tuned against formula and water-stability testing. The project avoids treating one extreme temperature or residence time as universal for every shrimp formula.

Commissioning focus: Wheat flour and protein-meal variability affected early water stability, so the team adjusted conditioning and formula control based on actual test results rather than visual pellet appearance alone.

Sinking Fish Feed (40,000 T/Y):
The sinking route is used for fish products that need controlled density and water stability. Typical finished sizes are approximately 2–5 mm.

Engineering control: Die specification, conditioning and crumbling are selected by target size and sinking behavior. Fines are screened and recycled so density is not controlled simply by making pellets harder.

Floating Extruded Feed (20,000 T/Y):
The floating route uses twin-screw extrusion, staged drying and post-extrusion coating. Product diameters can range from about 1.5 mm for fingerlings to roughly 5 mm for larger fish.

Engineering control: Screw speed, moisture/steam addition, die pressure and cutter speed are adjusted together. The dryer profile then removes moisture without collapsing the expanded structure, and oil is applied after thermal processing where the formula requires it.

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Utilities Reflect Fine Grinding Extrusion and Drying

The annual utility basis for the completed aquaculture feed factory is:

Electricity: Actual cost should be calculated from the customer’s current industrial tariff and demand structure rather than one fixed historical $/kWh assumption.

Natural gas: The 1.15 million m³/year project basis is retained, while actual cost depends on the contracted gas tariff and boiler operating load.

Utility evaluation: Energy should be tracked per ton by product family because floating feed uses more drying and extrusion energy than conventional sinking pellets.

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The 6 T/H Gas Boiler Supports All Shifts

The project uses a natural-gas boiler because the customer selected a compact steam system with low ash handling and stable control for continuous aquafeed production. The choice is treated as site-specific rather than as a general claim that biomass is unsuitable in southern Vietnam.

The main reasons for the gas system are:

• Stable fuel delivery and controllable steam production for conditioning and extrusion
• Lower ash-handling demand inside a food- and feed-processing environment
• A compact boiler room compared with solid-fuel storage and ash-handling systems
• Fast response to changing steam demand across pellet and extrusion routes

The installed boiler is rated at about 6 T/H of steam. It follows the multi-shift production schedule rather than operating only 10 hours per day; average fuel use depends on which pellet and extrusion lines are active and how much steam each formula requires.

Ventilation lesson: The boiler room required additional exhaust ventilation during commissioning because hot, humid weather raised internal panel temperatures. Ventilation is now part of the utility-room design basis.

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Water Streams Are Separated by Source

The wastewater plan separates boiler blowdown, water-treatment discharge, scrubber or cleaning water and sanitary wastewater instead of routing everything through one generic stream.

The project uses the following source-based approach:

• Boiler blowdown: Collected and managed through the site’s approved utility-water treatment route.
• Water-treatment discharge: Handled separately from product-contact areas and managed according to local discharge requirements.
• Dust / cleaning water: Settling and recirculation are used where practical, with sludge removed through the solid-waste route.
• Sanitary wastewater: Managed through the site sanitary-treatment system sized for the operating workforce.

Final discharge or reuse must follow the project’s approved local environmental conditions. The article does not treat “no river discharge” as a substitute for permitting or monitoring requirements.

Fish-meal storage detail: Protein meals and oils require a cleanable, sealed floor with spill containment so leaked fat does not migrate into concrete or drainage routes. This is a housekeeping and product-safety requirement, not an optional finish.

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US$1.58 Million Equipment Package Inside a US$2.64 Million Project

The fish feed mill project separates imported equipment cost from completed fixed investment.

Equipment Cost (CIF Cat Lai Port, Vietnam): US$1,580,000

The equipment scope includes:

• All major aqua feed mill equipment for receiving, grinding, mixing, pelleting, extrusion, drying, cooling and packaging
• Control panels and the supplied electrical components
• Startup wear and spare parts for dies, rollers, knives and screens
• Installation supervision for the supplied process package

Local fixed-investment scope:

• Land and civil works: approximately US$800,000
• Local installation labor: approximately US$120,000
• Electrical and plumbing: approximately US$80,000
• Boiler installation and gas connection: approximately US$60,000

Total Project Investment: approximately US$2.64 million

Investment basis: about US$26.4 of fixed project investment per annual ton of finished-feed capacity.

Profitability should be modeled from current customer data:

• Raw-material cost changes with fish-meal, soybean-meal and starch prices
• Finished-feed selling price changes by shrimp, sinking and floating product specification
• Gross margin depends on formula, energy, packaging, finance and distribution
• Annual production target: 100,000 tons across the three product families
• Net return must include overhead, taxes, working capital, maintenance and route-specific energy use

The page therefore uses the completed US$2.64 million investment as the project benchmark and does not publish a guaranteed 6–8 month payback period.

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Installation Had to Account for Heat Humidity and Power

The equipment moved from Qingdao to Cat Lai Port before inland delivery to the project site. Customs timing and final inland transport were coordinated with foundation readiness so large process sections did not wait outdoors unnecessarily.

Three installation risks required attention:

• Heat and humidity. Work schedules, corrosion protection and panel ventilation were adjusted for hot, humid site conditions.
• Foundation strength. Equipment foundations were not released for loading until concrete strength and curing met the installation requirement.
• Electrical capacity. Transformer and feeder sizing had to support simultaneous grinding, pelleting, extrusion and drying loads without excessive voltage drop.

Site advantages included:

• Local fabrication capability. Site steelwork, catwalks and handrails could be fabricated locally to the issued drawings.
• Established protein-meal sourcing. The customer already had supplier relationships for fish meal and other key ingredients.
• Utility connection. The gas and electrical interfaces were coordinated early enough to support commissioning.

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Three Weeks of Training Covered the Full Process

The factory employs about 40 people across continuous operation. Training therefore covered incoming material, control-room operation and maintenance instead of only machine start/stop procedures.

The three-week training program was divided by operating risk:

Week 1: Raw-material inspection, moisture checks, oil and meal condition, contamination control and receiving rejection criteria.

Week 2: Control-room sequencing, alarms, interlocks, safe clearing procedures and route changeover.

Week 3: Die and roller inspection, extruder wear parts, oil-coating calibration, dryer cleaning and preventive maintenance.

Startup protection lesson: An extruder safety shear component operated when the machine was started under incorrect conditions, preventing the overload from reaching the gearbox.

The incident was used as a training example for correct pre-start checks and controlled shutdown rather than as evidence of equipment fragility.

The customer then increased the stock of critical low-cost safety and wear parts for routine operation.

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Product Release Uses Laboratory and Water-Stability Checks

After commissioning, shrimp-feed samples were checked for water stability, protein, moisture and fat before commercial release.

Representative commissioning checks:

• Water stability evaluated after controlled immersion according to the customer’s shrimp-feed specification
• Protein content checked against the active formula and raw-material analysis
• Finished moisture controlled at or below the agreed storage specification
• Fat content verified after mixing or post-coating according to the product route

Laboratory results are used together with trial-pond observations, but the article does not attribute a fixed growth improvement to one feed batch because animal performance also depends on pond management, stocking density, health and feeding practice.

Fresh local ingredients can be a commercial advantage, but palatability and growth claims still require controlled farm data rather than comparisons based only on ingredient age.

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Vietnam Supports Both Shrimp and Fish Feed Demand

The commercial logic for this shrimp feed production line in Vietnam comes from the scale and diversity of the country’s aquaculture sector.

Three market characteristics matter most:

• Vietnam has a large export-oriented shrimp industry that requires consistent formulated feed
• Pangasius and other farmed fish create a separate demand base for sinking and floating products
• High-performance feed competes on water stability, digestibility, density and farm results—not simply on country of origin

The production trend:
Intensive aquaculture increases the cost of poor feed quality because excess fines, weak pellets and unstable nutrient delivery can affect both feed conversion and pond water quality.

The equipment implication:
A floating fish feed production line in Vietnam needs reliable fine grinding, extrusion, drying and coating capacity. The advantage of the new plant is process control and product flexibility, not a claim that modern twin-screw equipment is rare nationwide.

Future expansion should be based on confirmed sales, raw-material supply, transformer capacity, steam and dryer headroom before another extruder or a pet-food route is added.

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The Engineering Value Is in Route Balance

The aquafeed mill in Vietnam required a process balance across grinding, steam, pelleting, extrusion, drying, coating and packaging. One machine can meet its own nameplate capacity while the whole factory still misses 15–16 T/H if a downstream section is undersized.

Hourly mass balance, steam demand and dryer evaporation have to close before the machine list is frozen.

The project scope covers:

• Process design: Hourly balance, transfer points, airflow, conditioning and drying duty by product route.
• Local adaptation: Humidity, ventilation, raw-material variability and local electrical interfaces.
• After-sales planning: Critical wear parts, startup spares and maintenance procedures matched to the supplied equipment.
• Process acceptance is based on finished-feed quality and sustained route balance, not on one machine’s no-load test.

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Start With Tonnage by Product Route

The first design input is annual tonnage by shrimp pellet, sinking fish feed and floating extruded feed.

1. Start with raw-material analysis. Protein, moisture, starch, oil and ingredient variability determine grinding and thermal-processing requirements.
2. Close the hourly balance. A 15–16 T/H aquatic fish feed production line in Vietnam needs about 15.4 T/H average finished output across 6,480 scheduled hours.
3. Design for the climate. Panels, motors, ventilation, storage and dryer performance all have to work in hot, humid conditions.
4. Budget for training. Four downstream routes create more operating complexity than one conventional pellet line.

The same design method applies across Southeast Asia: product mix, ingredients, moisture, operating hours and site utilities must be proven before the final equipment count is fixed.

Project input: For a sinking fish feed plant in Vietnam or mixed shrimp-and-floating-feed project, provide the annual product split, target pellet diameters, ingredient list, site dimensions and operating schedule.

Those inputs determine whether the project needs shared grinding with multiple downstream lines or a simpler single-route design.

The final goal is a stable 15–16 T/H aquafeed production line in Vietnam that can hold product quality across all three feed families.