Dakota Dry Bean Plant - Virtual Tour
Welcome to the Virtual Tour of the Dakota Dry Bean, Inc. pea and barley facilities.
Dakota Dry Bean has three processing facilities and one receiving station which are ideally located in key barley and pea growing regions of North Dakota offering dependable access to locally grown feedstock supplies and access to attractive downstream costumers. The facilities have received significant capital investment with approximately $9 million spent on facility improvements since 2015. As a testament to the quality of facilities, Dakota Dry Bean’s dry fractionated protein product has an industry leading 57% protein content (dry matter basis). These ongoing investments in operational improvements coupled with strong origination markets and end consumer demand position Dakota Dry Bean to deliver strong performance well into the future.
Elevator - Crary
The Crary facility was completely rebuilt from early February 2015 into 2016. A totally new receiving system was built (bins, handling systems, dryer, cleaner, scale, and office). In addition a new splitting line, new rail shipping bins and handling system, and switching track were installed. Finally, the fiber line was upgraded in 2016 with improved equipment and dust suppression. A vibratory cleaner was added to remove the fines, the destoner was reconditioned and new screens added, a new negative air system was installed on the grinder to improve dust control and improve the consistency of the end product.
- 4 – 25,000 bu bins for dry, wet, pre-cleaned, and processing
- 8,000 bu/hr receiving leg for unloading via rail and truck
- 2 – 3,000 bu overhead bins for truck load out and pre-cleaning
- 1,000-1,500 bu/hr dryer
Catwalk - Crary
The Crary catwalks are used to access bin storage. In addition there are three legs visible in this photo including one main 8,000 bu/hr leg and two secondary 2,500 bu/hr legs. The legs send product to the clean, wet, or dry storage bins.
Splitting Line - Crary
Peas are transferred from the process bin to a surge bin above the destoner. The splitting line has a capacity of up to 30,000 pounds per hour of peas. After the destoning, the peas are legged to the first cleaner for a final cleaning and then legged to the intake scale to get the raw product weight. The peas are dehulled and then split using a roller mill. The final cleaner removes remaining hulls and chips which are transferred to separate bins. The split peas go to the finished product scale and pneumatically moved to truck or rail bins for shipment. The PLC calculates the process yield between the two scales for trend line analysis.
- Entire line was rebuilt in 2015 with everything sized to 30,000 lbs/hr.
- Pea splitter is a proprietary and completely in-house design.
- Splitting line achieves yields of approximately 82% depending on crop condition.
- High quality Cimbria Delta 116 fine cleaner installed in 2015.
Fiber Line - Crary
Hulls are legged to a vibratory cleaner to removes fines and small seeds which are sent to the fines bin. The overs are legged to the destoner which separates the chips from the hulls by aspiration. The chips are sent to the Lakeview fractionation plant for processing. The hulls are sent to the grinder to be ground to customer specifications and then moved to the fiber bin and toted for shipment. The fiber line was built to easily handle all of the hulls from the splitting line and can operate in unison with or separately from the splitting line. Hulls can be sourced from other splitting operations if needed.
- The fiber line was rebuilt in 2016 with the destoner receiving new screens.
- All fiber is packaged in totes for truck shipping out of Crary.
- Fiber line has excess capacity and produces 3,000-4,000 lbs/hr of toted fiber depending on customer specifications, crop conditions, and other factors.
- In addition to running in unison with the splitting line, the fiber line is designed to run independently of the splitting line.
Rail Load Out - Crary
We have two rows of shipping bins for loading bulk hoppers cars, one row is used for pelleted product from the Lakeview fractionation plant and the other row is for loading split peas. The two rows of shipping bins have separate shipping and receiving systems to prevent any accidental product mixing. The rail loading capacity of each system is 5,000 bushel per hour. A dust suppression system for rail loading will be installed in September 2016.
- Rail spur switching track added in 2015, 600 ft. of track and switch. Rail King 300 used to switch cars. Loading system handles approximately 1 car/hr.
- Addition of rail spur allows for efficient car switching. Product can be pre-staged in shipping bins which allows DDB to avoid demurrage costs.
- Belt conveyor used for split peas and drag conveyor used for pellet product loading both are 5,000 bu/hr.
- Dust suppression system schedule for September 2016 installation estimated to cost approximately $100,000.
Receiving and Shipping - Lakeview
Dakota Dry Bean started building the Lakeview dry fractionation plant in 2010 and completed the construction in 2011. The plant takes yellow peas and fractionates them into pea starch, protein and flour creating products for primarily pet food customers. The plant is noted for producing a high level protein product (approximately 57% protein on a dry matter basis). In 2015/2016 an extensive pelleting system was installed to meet customer needs. Currently the plant has more pelleting capacity than milling capacity to accommodate future expansion.
- Receiving for weighing, grading and emptying inbound pea trucks and loading outbound powder trucks. 4,000 bu per hour unloading rate.
- Raw peas sent from receiving area to bin by conveyor– two 3,000 bu raw product bins.
- Cleaning and milling building. Mill capacity of 10,000 pounds per hour. Buhler cleaner and destoner are used to clean peas before they are dried to approx. 11%. Once the peas are split the chips and hulls are sent to a Jacobson hammermill to be processed into fiber.
- Warehouse for toting and tote storage. Six trucks of toted storage capacity.
- Final product bins for bulk truck loadout, powdered product– 3,000 bu capacity per bin.
- 5,000 bu bin loaded by auger from trucks for primarily pelleted product. Product can toted directly from the bin for shipment or to warehouse floor. DDB has separate bins in the mill area for powdered product that is moved to the tote warehouse by screw auger for toting. Most fiber product is loaded into bulk trucks at Lakeview but can also be toted. Pelleted product is shipped in totes, bulk trucks, and bulk hopper cars.
- Lakeview is not on a rail line but utilizes three company-owned semi-trucks to move product 6 miles to Crary. At Crary the pelleted product is loaded into bulk rail cars for shipment throughout the US. Company trucks are used to move chips from Crary to Lakeview to be processed into fractions.
- Final product bins for pelleting, two 5,000 bu bins for starch, two 3,000 bu bins – one for flour and one for protein.
- Final product bins – 13 days of finished pelleted product storage on site.
Mill - Lakeview
Dehulled peas and pea chips are sent to a surge bin above two intake scales that control the amount of product going to the two fine pulverizing grinders and for determining milling yields of the fractions. Material from each grinder is air lifted to baghouses, designed to match the grinder flow with the required amount of negative air, and then sent to the first classifier which removes the heavier starch product that is weighed through a finished product scale and pneumatically sent to finished product bins. The lighter material is air lifted to the classifier 1 air filter and sent to the second classifier which separates the heavier flour from the protein. The heavier flour is sent to another finished product scale to determine flour yield and then pneumatically sent to finished product bins. The lighter protein is sent to either a toting bin in the mill or to a storage bin for pelleting.
- Mill includes two 5,000 lb/hr grinders for a total operating capacity of 240,000 lbs/day depending on downtime.
- There is sufficient land to add a pea isolate plant to the facility and additional milling capacity could be added to accommodate that plant.
- Approximately 40% of the mill volume can be sourced through pea chips produced at the DDB Crary facility but that is dependent on splitting volume.
- Proprietary fractionation/classification design produces a protein product with 52-53% protein levels on an as-is basis.
- Starch can be bulked loaded into trucks, totes, or sent to two 5,000 bu bins for pelleting.
- Flour can be toted out or sent to a 3,000 bu bin for pelleting.
- Protein can be toted out or sent to a 3,000 bu bin for pelleting
Pelleting - Lakeview
The pelleting process is able to utilize 4 product bins to produce a pelleted product to meet customer specification and has two pelleting lines utilizing three CPM pellet machines. The protein pelleting line is separate from the starch and the flour line. Both systems use overhead surge bins to feed into the variable speed feed screw to a conditioner where steam is added. The amount of steam and retention time in the conditioner are critical to making a good pellet. The conditioner empties into a force feeder that assists the flow of protein into the die. The rollers compress the protein through the die to produce the pellet.
On the protein line the pellet exits the pelleting machine to a drag conveyor and is legged to a vertical cooler to lower pellet temperature to within 10 degrees of ambient air temperature prior to storage in four 3,000 bushel bins dedicated to protein storage.
On the starch and flour line the products are transferred to a Scott mixer with the quantities controlled by the PLC into a scale above the mixer to meet customer specifications. The product is dropped into the mixer and opposing screw augers quickly blend the product and transfer it to a holding bin that feeds the surge bins above pellet machines. Once the pellet exits the pelleting machine a drag
- The pelleting line has been overbuilt relative to the current milling capacity at Lakeview.
- Starch can be pelleted separately or mixed with flour to adjust the starch protein levels. The PLC controls the blending amounts.
- Steam and retention time are keys to creating a quality pellet.
- Includes two starch pellet mills and one protein pellet mill that can operate at 150 ton/day and 75 ton/day capacity, respectively.
- The starch pellet mills utilize a counterflow cooler that cools the pellets to within 10F of ambient temperature while the protein pellet mill utilizes a vertical cooler.
- Two rows of four 5,000 bushel bins, one row is for straight starch pellets and the second row is for protein enriched starch pellets.
Receiving and Shipping - East Grand Forks
The East Grand Forks plant started pearling barley in early 2008 upon completion of the milling line. The line capacity for pearled barley is 17,500 pounds per hour of raw barley. In 2013 roller mills were added to pearling line to meet the needs our customers for cracked pearled barley. The cracked line was much slower than the pearling line and could only process raw barley at 12,000 pounds per hour. Currently, sales are almost split evenly between pearled and cracked pearled barley. To improve plant performance, a new roller mill was added and changes were made to the line. Due to these improvements, DDB can process cracked barley at that same rate as pearled barley.
Mill - East Grand Forks
Barley is moved pneumatically from the raw product bins to the Bench Industries precleaner. The precleaned barley is conveyed to the destoner for destoning and then legged to the surge bin. From there it is transferred to a Buhler intake scale. From the intake scale the barley is sent to the four Buhler dehullers to remove the hull from the barley. The goal is to remove as much hull as possible but still leave the bran intact to maintain nutrient levels. The now pearled barley is sent to the Bench industries fine cleaners to remove any fines and other material. The pearled barley is then sent through an aspirator to remove any remaining fines and then weighed through the certified finish product scale and transferred to rail or truck shipping bins.
- The facility has installed a new cracking roller mill to increase operating capacity to 18,000 lb/hr for both pearled and cracked barley.
- The new roller mill and bins will allow for an additional 1-2 days per week of operations.
- Approximately half of the current volume is now cracked barley which follows a similar milling process as pearled barley. Finished cracked barley is shipped via truck to customer facilities.
- Currently 16-20 truck loads per week of cracked barley are being shipped from the facility.