Starch awareness

Danish enzyme company Novozymes has come up with an online tool to help operators solve starch conversion problems.

A new feature offered to the company's starch customers is a troubleshooting module - available as part of the starch e-Learning program BEST - Better Enzyme Solutions Training.

Lars Peter Andersen, technical service manager at Novozymes​, commented: "The first version of any program is seldom a complete success but we will make an effort to continuously develop and update the module with new problems and solutions."​

According to Andersen, the company is hoping to integrate new topics such as wheat processing and specialty syrups in the module within the next six months.

When a customer enters the troubleshooting module, Andersen explains, she/he is asked to indicate in which part of the starch conversion process they have encountered a problem: liquefaction, saccharification or isomerisation.

For each of the three processes, a number of problems are described in detail. By clicking on any of these, the customer will be told what to check, how to check it and where to check it.

For example, high enzyme consumption is one of the problems a customer can select if she/he clicks on 'Liquefaction' in the start menu. According to the program, a solution to this particular problem might be to check that the temperature in the jet cooker is between 105°C and 108°C.