Partial Calcification of Free Fatty Acid Mixtures for Livestock Feed
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current calcium soap nutritional supplements for livestock face issues with melting, caking, and handling due to low onset melting points, making them unsuitable for transportation, storage, and industrial processing, and they have negative nutritional effects on the rumen.
Innovation Solution
A method of partially salting free fatty acids with calcium oxide to create a calcium salt mixture with improved melt points and hardness, allowing for prilling, flaking, and pelleting, while maintaining nutritional value.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If calcium soaps are made from natural fats through saponification, then calcium salt composition is achieved, but the product has low onset melting point causing melting and caking during storage and transportation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the chemical composition parameters by using partially salted fatty acid mixtures instead of fully saponified calcium soaps. This parameter change increases the onset melting point from below 100°F to above 170°F, preventing melting and caking during storage and transportation while maintaining nutritional value for livestock.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite material system combining partially salted fatty acids with both ionic (calcium salt) and covalent (free fatty acid) components. This composite structure provides both the nutritional benefits of calcium salts and the stability of free fatty acids, resolving the contradiction between composition and storage stability.
2Quantity of substance
If calcium soaps are produced with high calcium content, then nutritional supplement value is improved, but handling and processing becomes difficult due to melting and caking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical state parameters by maintaining a solid structure through partial salting (25-75% calcium content). This parameter change enables easy handling, pouring, and processing while still providing significant nutritional value, eliminating the processing difficulties associated with fully saponified calcium soaps.
3Ease of manufacture
If full saponification is performed to produce calcium soaps, then calcium salt formation is achieved, but the product cannot be prilled or flaked due to low melt point
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the melting temperature parameter from below 100°F (full saponification) to above 170°F (partial salting). This parameter change enables the product to be prilled and flaked like conventional livestock feeds while still achieving effective calcium salt formation for nutritional supplementation.
4Quantity of substance
If free fatty acid mixtures are used without salting, then nutritional value is maintained, but the product melts and cakes during storage and processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the chemical composition parameter by introducing calcium salts at 25-75% concentration. This parameter change increases the onset melting point and improves storage stability while maintaining the nutritional value of the fatty acid mixture, resolving the contradiction between composition and stability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The partially salted calcium salt mixture exhibits increased onset melt point and hardness, enabling better storage, transportation, and processing without melting or caking, and providing improved nutritional benefits for livestock.
Implementation Method 1
mixing one or more basic oxides (preferably CaO) in excess with the fatty acids and triglycerides and with water and, optionally, with an additional nutritional material as a source of proteins, thoroughly homogenizing the mixture to bring about the exothermic reaction that forms the corresponding fatty acid salts
Implementation Method 2
soaps are generally made from natural animal or plant fats containing triglycerides that comprise fatty acids, usually long-chain fatty acids, attached to the glycerol skeleton, which form salts by means of a process of saponification in the presence of bases
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention includes a nutritional supplement composition that may be used for livestock and the like, as well as to a livestock feed mixture containing same. Also included are methods of preparing the nutritional supplement composition, the livestock feed mixture, as well as methods of providing nutrition to livestock and the like. The livestock feed composition comprises: (a) a solid particulate livestock feed material and (b) a solidified particulate mixture of (i) free fatty acid and (ii) a calcium salt of a fatty acid, the calcium salt of a fatty acid being present in a molar ratio amount in the range of from about 25% to about 55% of the amount of the free fatty acid. The preferred mixture is a solid having an onset melt point of between about 140 and 170 degrees Fahrenheit, and a hardness of from about 5 to about 15 Shore A units at 170 degrees Fahrenheit.