Principles of innovative seed pelleting technology

The increase in the world's population to 9 billion people is leading to an aggravation of the global food crisis. A key factor in solving this problem is the use of innovative technologies for preparing the seed fund, which will increase crop yields and consumer characteristics of the productive part of the harvest while rationally using the land fund of Ukraine, which is one of the five largest agricultural exporting countries. An analytical review of the basic methods and equipment for processing crop seeds aimed at ensuring high yields, increasing resistance to adverse agroclimatic conditions and improving consumer characteristics of products is carried out. Existing methods of pre-sowing treatment include drying, coating, encrustment, and pelleting. These processes are usually carried out in bowl-type, drum-type, or stirrer machines. Despite their widespread use, they have a number of significant drawbacks. These include an increased risk of agglomerate formation, mechanical injury of the seeds, which reduces their germination, and low heat utilization, which affects the energy efficiency of the process. To eliminate these shortcomings, an innovative seed treatment technology based on the use of an apparatus with a heterogeneous jet-pulsation mode of fluidization is proposed. This technology has a number of advantages, including reducing the risk of seed damage, ensuring uniform distribution of the coating, and a significantly higher coefficient of thermal utilization. The use of this technology allows for an efficient granulation process, which is especially important in the production of granular organic-mineral fertilizers. The research results show that the use of a fluidized bed apparatus contributes to the production of spherical granules with a layered structure. Such granules contain nutrient minerals, bone meal, and humic compounds that provide comprehensive plant nutrition. An important indicator of the process efficiency is the low dust emission factor of less than 12%. The thermal coefficient of the technology exceeds 50%, which indicates its high energy efficiency. The proposed innovative technology has high adaptive properties for a full cycle of pre-sowing seed preparation, from drying, calibration and dressing to encrustment and pelleting. This allows us to achieve high results even in unfavorable agroclimatic conditions. Innovative solutions are based on the use of the original jet-pulsation fluidization mode, which allows to increase the efficiency of heat and mass transfer in combination with intensive renewal of the phase contact surface. Due to this technology, it is possible to carry out pre-sowing preparation according to an individual program, which will help to improve the consumer characteristics of agricultural products and preserve environmental balance.