Feed Mill Plant for Soybean Feed in Chile

RICHI MACHINERY

How the conversation started

The customer is an agricultural trading and feed-ingredient business in central Chile with established relationships in grain import, storage and animal-feed distribution. Its main commercial problem was not how to manufacture another complete feed formula; it was how to add value to whole soybeans while retaining the natural oil and producing a repeatable protein-and-energy ingredient for downstream feed mills.

Chile is strongly dependent on imported soy protein. Trade data for 2024 show roughly 85,900 tonnes of whole soybean imports, led by Argentina and Brazil, while imports of soybean oil-cake and other solid soybean residues exceeded one million tonnes. That made local thermal processing commercially relevant, but it also meant raw-material security had to be designed around import contracts rather than domestic crop assumptions.

The customer therefore planned an 80,000 T/A full-fat soybean plant using an existing approximately 5,500 m² industrial property. The location provides road access from San Antonio and links to customers in central and southern Chile without requiring a greenfield feed complex.

• Target finished product: extruded full-fat soybean feed ingredient, not complete compound feed.
• Main buyers: poultry, swine, dairy and commercial feed manufacturers using processed soybean in their formulations.
• Base operating schedule: 16 hours/day, 300 days/year.
• Required average output: about 16.7 T/H, within the 15–20 T/H design band.
• Raw soybean procurement: contracted imported beans meeting moisture, protein, oil and foreign-material specifications.

That definition changed the engineering focus. The project did not need batching bins for many ingredients, micro-dosing or pellet mills. It needed reliable whole-bean receiving, intensive cleaning, stable grinding, controlled hydrothermal treatment, enough extrusion capacity, rapid cooling and laboratory verification that anti-nutritional factors had been reduced without excessive heat damage.

Detailed engineering began in March 2025, followed by site measurement and utility review. Equipment scope was frozen in the second quarter, manufacturing and factory inspection were completed during the following months, and installation/commissioning were coordinated with the customer’s boiler, electrical and silo contractors. The overall implementation window was approximately eight months.

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site and construction

The project reuses the customer’s existing approximately 5,500 m² facility, so most construction work involved internal restructuring, steel platforms, foundations, dust-control ducting, electrical distribution and material-flow changes rather than a new factory shell.

Main structures

The covered building figures total approximately 5,300 m², consistent with the existing 5,500 m² property rather than implying a second hidden production site. Outdoor space is reserved for raw-bean silos, truck maneuvering, fire access and utility equipment.

Ceiling height in part of the workshop is limited, so the line does not use a tall gravity-flow tower. RICHI combined bucket elevators with horizontal enclosed conveyors, local steel platforms and floor-mounted extrusion/cooling equipment. This reduces structural work and keeps maintenance points accessible.

Raw soybean traffic and finished-product traffic are separated as far as the existing building allows. Receiving and cleaning sit close to the outdoor silos, while packaging and dispatch connect directly to the two finished warehouses. Dust aspiration is concentrated at intake, grinding, cooler exhaust and final sizing.

The plant also includes a laboratory/QC room for soybean moisture, crude protein/oil screening and thermal-processing checks. Fire protection, grounding, explosion-risk housekeeping and dust-removal routines are included because soybean receiving and grinding generate combustible organic dust.

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Raw materials and energy consumption

The only principal raw material is whole soybean. The project does not depend on Chilean soybean production: procurement is based on contracted South American imports, with Argentina as the main logical origin and Brazil, Bolivia or Paraguay available as secondary sources when commercial and phytosanitary conditions allow.

Raw material

The mass balance allows for intake cleaning, broken/foreign-material rejection and moisture reduction. For example, 83,000 tonnes of beans at around 12% moisture contain approximately 73,000 tonnes of dry matter, while 80,000 tonnes of finished product at around 10% moisture contain about 72,000 tonnes. The difference covers normal cleaning and processing losses while approximately 2,000 tonnes of water is removed through extrusion flash-off and cooling.

Incoming soybean QC is more important than treating every shipment the same. Operators check moisture, test weight, visible mold, damaged kernels and foreign material, while protein/oil values are verified by supplier certificate and periodic laboratory analysis. Lots outside the agreed range can change extruder load and finished nutritional value.

Utilities

The 3 T/H boiler provides reserve capacity above normal process-steam demand. Steam flow is adjusted by soybean moisture and extrusion recipe rather than held at one fixed rate. Electrical service is planned around the combined extruder, grinder and cooler starting loads, with approximately 1.25–1.6 MVA of site capacity providing practical operating margin.

The plant uses about 24–28 people across two shifts, including receiving, line operation, bagging, warehouse, maintenance, QC, supervision and shared administration. The existing office building means the project does not need a separate staff-accommodation program.

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Equipment configuration overview

The equipment package is built around full-fat soybean thermal processing. A separate microwave sterilization system is not used: the necessary heat treatment is achieved through steam conditioning and extrusion, where temperature, moisture, pressure and residence time are controlled together.

Main process equipment

Two extrusion trains give the customer both capacity and operating flexibility. When raw-bean moisture, protein/oil level or maintenance conditions change, the plant can operate below combined peak output without losing the annual 80,000-ton target.

The grinding system is designed for consistent heat transfer rather than excessive fineness. Soybeans are reduced to a uniform meal before steam conditioning, but particle size is adjusted from extruder response and final product specification. The early concept of heating whole beans in a microwave unit before grinding was eliminated because it duplicated the thermal function of the wet extrusion stage.

The cooler is a capacity-critical machine. Extrudate leaves the die hot and must be cooled quickly enough to protect storage stability while reducing moisture. Cooler airflow, residence time and fines collection are therefore sized for the full combined extrusion output rather than for average hourly production only.

The approximately USD 680,000 RICHI package includes the main process equipment, conveying, dust collection, automation and interfaces for the customer’s silos and local utilities. The remaining project investment covers local works and infrastructure.

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Process flow — detailed with real operation notes

The full-fat soybean process is designed to inactivate anti-nutritional factors without overprocessing the protein. Thermal treatment is therefore verified by laboratory indicators rather than by assuming that one fixed temperature automatically guarantees good feed quality.

① Raw soybean receiving

Imported soybeans arrive by bulk truck from port or intermediate grain storage. Each lot is weighed, sampled and checked before unloading. Moisture, odor, damaged kernels and visible contamination are recorded against the supplier specification.

② Screening

The intake stream passes through pre-cleaning and gravity/destoning equipment to remove straw, stones, soil and light impurities. Dust is extracted at the receiving point to reduce housekeeping and explosion risk.

③ Storage

Clean beans are transferred to outdoor steel silos. Inventory is managed by supplier lot so the operator can track moisture and quality through production. Aeration and temperature monitoring reduce the risk of condensation or biological heating during storage.

④ Magnetic separation

A high-strength magnetic separator is installed before grinding and another protection point can be used before extrusion. Ferrous contamination is removed before it reaches hammer-mill or extruder wear parts.

⑤ Grinding

Soybeans are metered through hammer mill feed grinders. The objective is a stable, uniform particle distribution that gives the conditioner and extruder consistent heat and moisture transfer. Screen size is selected during commissioning from motor load, throughput and finished meal requirement.

⑥ Conditioning

Ground full-fat soybean enters a steam conditioner. Steam raises product moisture and temperature before extrusion, reducing the mechanical energy that the screws must supply and improving thermal uniformity. Conditioner residence time and steam addition are adjusted by incoming moisture rather than fixed to one five-minute recipe.

⑦ Extrusion

Conditioned meal is processed through two parallel wet extruders. Short-time high-temperature treatment, pressure and shear disrupt the soybean cellular structure and reduce trypsin inhibitors and other heat-labile anti-nutritional factors while retaining the natural oil in the product.

Urease alone is not used as proof of perfect processing because very low urease can also occur after over-heating. The plant therefore reviews urease together with protein solubility and periodic trypsin-inhibitor testing. A practical benchmark is urease activity below about 0.3 pH-unit rise, while KOH protein solubility around 70–85% is used as a supporting heat-treatment check, subject to the customer’s laboratory method and buyer specification.

⑧ Cooling and moisture reduction

Hot extrudate moves directly to the cooling system. Ambient air reduces product temperature and removes part of the added process moisture. Product is not packed until temperature is close enough to ambient and moisture is within the safe storage specification.

⑨ Screening

Cooled material passes a grading screen. Fines and abnormal oversize are separated from the main product stream. Acceptable fines can be recycled under the plant’s quality procedure; contaminated or degraded material is not returned automatically.

⑩ Crushing

Where customers require meal rather than coarse expanded pieces, cooled extrudate passes through a roller crusher or gentle mill. Final particle size is set by buyer application—commercial compound feed, poultry/swine feed or another validated formulation—rather than by one universal mill setting.

⑪ Packaging

Finished product is weighed into 50 kg bags or FIBCs. Automatic weighing, stitching/sealing and lot coding are sized to remain above line output so packaging does not become the production bottleneck.

⑫ Storage and dispatch

Released product is transferred to the two finished warehouses. Lots are stored dry, off the floor and away from walls where condensation can form. Dispatch records link each shipment to the soybean intake lot, extrusion shift and QC result.

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Investment and cost reference

Because this is presented as a completed project, the investment is shown as one fixed implementation figure rather than a broad planning range. The USD 480,000 figure corresponds more closely to an early core-equipment concept and is not sufficient for the completed 15–20 T/H installation with two extrusion trains, silos, boiler and local utility work.

Total completed project investment: USD 1.32 million.

Working capital is separate. At this throughput, soybean inventory can exceed machinery value quickly, so the customer maintains separate financing for imported beans, port charges, inland freight, packaging and customer credit.

No fixed payback period or margin is published. The economics depend mainly on bean purchase basis, freight, exchange rate, finished full-fat soybean selling price, utilization and the price relationship between whole beans, soybean meal and vegetable oil.

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Shipping details

The equipment logistics route uses Qingdao as the Chinese departure port and San Antonio as the main Chilean destination gateway. This route matches the project’s central-Chile location and keeps inland heavy-haul distance manageable.

San Antonio handled about 23.9 million tonnes of cargo and more than 2.06 million TEU in 2025, supporting its role as a major gateway for containerized and bulk cargo. Final shipping mode for each equipment batch depends on dimensions, vessel schedule and local crane requirements.

The project schedule included advance shipment of layout-critical items and installation drawings so local foundations, boiler work and electrical preparation could proceed before the main machinery arrived. This reduced idle time between customs release and mechanical erection.

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What made this project work

The most important decision was defining the plant as a full-fat soybean ingredient factory. That kept the equipment package focused and prevented the customer from paying for compound-feed batching or pelletizing systems that were not needed.

• Imported soybean procurement was treated as a core operating requirement, not a background assumption.
• Steam conditioning and wet extrusion replaced a separate microwave sterilization step.
• Two extrusion trains provide both capacity and maintenance flexibility.
• Cooling was sized as a production bottleneck rather than a small auxiliary stage.
• Quality control uses soybean-processing indicators instead of relying only on discharge temperature.
• The existing low-rise workshop was retained through horizontal routing and local platforms.

Chile’s animal-feed sector is regulated by the Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero (SAG). Decreto N°4/2016 is the principal animal-feed regulation, and SAG also maintains requirements for feed-manufacturing facilities, quality-assurance systems and contaminant limits. The customer therefore operates the plant as a feed-ingredient manufacturer with documented raw-material lots, process records and finished-product release.

The factory’s quality system checks not only protein and oil but also whether heat treatment is sufficient and whether excessive processing has damaged protein availability. This is particularly important with full-fat soy because raw beans contain anti-nutritional factors, while excessive thermal treatment can reduce amino-acid availability.

RICHI’s scope covers process design, equipment manufacture, control integration, factory inspection, export packing, installation guidance, commissioning and operator training. Local specialists handle gas connection, electrical approval, civil work and the Chilean compliance procedures tied to the site.

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Market outlook in Chile

Chile is not a major soybean-producing country, but it is a substantial consumer of imported soybean protein. In 2024, whole-soybean imports were about 85,900 tonnes, while imports of soybean oil-cake and other solid soybean residues exceeded one million tonnes. Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil were the main regional suppliers of soybean meal-type material.

That import pattern is important for this project. An 80,000 T/A full-fat soybean factory is too large to be justified by a small local soybean crop; it only makes sense with direct regional procurement and efficient port/inland logistics. The value proposition is to import the bean and carry out thermal processing in Chile, creating a high-energy protein ingredient while retaining the soybean oil.

The main commercial outlets are poultry, swine, dairy and compound-feed manufacturers. Aquaculture is also a major Chilean feed market—official 2025 aquaculture harvest exceeded 1.5 million tonnes, dominated by salmonids—but full-fat soybean inclusion in aquafeed must follow the buyer’s formulation, digestibility and anti-nutritional-factor limits rather than being assumed as a universal salmon-feed ingredient.

The project therefore competes less with complete feed mills and more with imported processed soybean ingredients. Buyers compare crude protein, oil, moisture, urease/TIA, protein solubility, consistency, freight and storage stability.

This market structure favors reliable production more than headline peak capacity. A plant that repeatedly supplies specification-compliant full-fat soybean at 16–18 T/H can be more valuable than a nominal 20 T/H line that changes quality whenever soybean moisture or origin changes.

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A note from the engineering side

Commissioning focused on balancing heat treatment and protein protection. The first objective was not simply to reach the highest extruder temperature; operators adjusted grinding uniformity, conditioner steam, feeder speed and screw load until the product met both anti-nutritional-factor and protein-quality targets.

Raw soybean origin matters. Beans from different suppliers can vary in moisture, kernel size, protein, oil and storage history. The control system therefore allows feeder and steam settings to be saved by production recipe while operators still verify the actual lot before using a stored setting.

Cooling was tuned together with extrusion. Product leaving the die too hot or too wet can condense in storage, while excessive airflow can create unnecessary fines. Cooler bed depth and fan operation were adjusted from finished moisture and temperature rather than one fixed residence time.

The same logic applies to final crushing. Some customers accept coarse expanded material, while others want a meal suitable for direct dosing into a compound-feed mixer. The final roller setting is therefore a commercial product decision, not part of the anti-nutritional-factor treatment itself.

The result is a line that can absorb normal raw-material variation without using an unnecessary additional heating stage or relying on operator guesswork.

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If planning something similar

A full-fat soybean project should begin with the bean supply contract and the buyer specification. Capacity alone does not determine the correct process.

• Confirm annual whole-soybean supply by origin, moisture, protein, oil and foreign-material limits.
• Define whether the product is full-fat extruded soybean, partially de-oiled meal or another soybean ingredient.
• Set finished moisture, particle size, protein/oil declaration and thermal-processing QC requirements.
• Decide how urease activity, trypsin-inhibitor activity and protein solubility will be tested and released.
• Verify steam, electrical capacity, cooling-air conditions and raw/finished storage before fixing extruder quantity.
• Calculate port, silo and working-capital requirements alongside the machinery budget.
• Confirm SAG feed-manufacturing, storage, traceability and contaminant-control requirements for the Chilean site.

For this project, 80,000 T/A works because 15–20 T/H is an operating range rather than a promise of constant maximum output. Sixteen production hours per day over 300 days require an average of about 16.7 T/H, leaving useful process margin.

The final system is therefore more accurately understood as a specialized animal feed production line for full-fat soybean ingredient processing. It converts imported whole beans into a standardized feed material that downstream mills can formulate into poultry, swine, dairy or other approved diets.

For a comparable project, RICHI would first request soybean analysis, annual tonnage, port and site location, building dimensions, available power/steam, target product specification and packaging method. Those inputs determine whether one extrusion train, parallel trains, dry extrusion or wet extrusion is the more appropriate design.