Wet milling uses water to break down grains before grinding, making it easier to separate individual parts. The process is common for food components, but dry milling is used for flour or ethanol. The slurry is immersed in hot water with sulfur dioxide, ground coarsely, and separated into germ, fiber, starch, and gluten. The fiber is processed into animal feed, and the gluten and starch are separated and transformed into various products.
Wet milling is both a process of producing grains and the machinery used for wet milling. The wet milling process involves using water to break down the grains before grinding. This allows individual parts of the grain to separate from each other for easier harvesting. The wet milling process is a common method of harvesting grain for food components, but dry milling is more common for flour or ethanol production.
It is common to use a wet mill on a variety of different feed materials commonly referred to as grains. The basic idea is that the material softens and breaks down in water. When the feed material is ground up, it will take less energy to pulverize it as it is already soft and will more easily break down into its constituent pieces.
The first step in a wet milling procedure is the immersion of the material to turn it into a slurry. The food is placed in a tank filled with hot water and left to sit for a day or two. While in the water, the food softens as its internal protein bonds begin to break down. This water generally has a small amount of sulfur dioxide mixed in. This prevents hot, mushy food from growing harmful bacteria. After the slurry leaves the tank, the starch-rich water is purified and condensed for use in animal feed or fermentation.
The slurry is ground very coarsely to complete its basic dissolution. This results in a warm, moist mush of nearly uniform consistency. During this stage, any germs still attached to the food product are broken up. In a grain, the germ is the part of the seed that would actually grow into another plant. This portion of the grain is used to create most vegetable oils.
The next step in the wet milling process is the separation of the germ from the rest of the slurry. The slurry is placed in cyclone tanks and spun. The germ’s lower density allows it to separate from the rest of the material so it can be pulled out of the mix.
The slurry is now composed mainly of fiber, starch and gluten. The material is ground again, this time very thoroughly. After grinding, the blend passes through a series of screens, separating the fiber from the rest. This fiber is screened multiple times to ensure its relative purity, and then processed into animal feed.
The gluten and starch enter a centrifuge, where the lower density gluten separates from the starch. Gluten is transformed into various products, both for humans and animals. The starch is converted into products such as corn starch or made into corn syrup and dextrose.
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