Current scenario.
Poultry industry in Malaysia is heavily dependent on imported feedstuffs, such as maize, soybean and fishmeal, amounting about RM 2.5 billion. These situations warrant a concerted effort by the public and private sectors to seek for alternative solutions to the imported feedstuffs.

Potential local feedstuffs.
Palm kernel cake (PKC) is one of the potential feedstuffs currently available in large quantities. It is a by-product of the palm oil processing industry. Current annual supply of PKC is over 2 million tones.Palm kernel cake has chemical composition close to rice bran and wheat midding,thus its utilization in poultry diets has obvious potential. PKC could be turned into a good feedstuffs for poultry if some treatments are imposed to increase its nutritive value and make it more digestible by poultry. With a targeted 50% replacement of improved PKC for maize in poultry diets, a reduction in the volume of imported maize, amounting to RM 500 million annually is envisaged. Improved PKC is a product of solid substrate fermentation (SSF) process using microbial and enzymatic means to increase the digestibility of the major carbohydrate polymers in PKC cell wall as wall as improving the availability of other nutrients. Improved PKC would have a nutritive value close to maize. Metabolisable energy (ME) value is targeted at 9 MJ as compared to 14 MJ for maize. PKC value could still be improved further and it is a competitive product to maize. The processing of PKC as poultry feed could be a viable economic enterprise. The innovation is changing the poultry system, from the use of traditional and mainly imported feed ingredients such as maize to using locally available improved ingredient which its nutritive values is comparable.

Objectives of the project:

1. To develop of a solid substrate fermentation technique for fermentation of PKC.
2. To improve the efficiency of PKC fermentation into poultry feed.

Research Approach

1. Hardware : design and develop a basic system for solid substrate fermentation (SSF) bioreactor

A solid substrate fermentation (SSF) bioreactor system for PKC fermentation will be developed, constructed and commissioned in this project. The prototype will be design based on specific requirements with the aids of CAD. This part will take in account several aspects including mechanical, electrical, electronic control and monitoring, safety measures, operation, maintenance and also includes some flexibility for future improvement . The prototype will be validated and subjected to optimization and further development to archive specific conditions required for PKC fermentation.

2. Software : develop basic mathematical models for SSF of PKC

System models for solid substrate fermentation will be developed based on the designer's bioreactor. The studies will include specification of problems and objectives , determination of the subsystems, conceptual planning, data collection and evaluation, model development, validation and modification of the models.

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Project Title:
Microbial Fermentation of Palm Kernel Cake For Poultry Feed

 

The importance of the models in developing bioreactor for fermentation process is ti describe the process in bioreactor and also provide strong foundation in the process development, optimization and control besides guiding in problem solving, trouble shooting regarding SSF and scalling up the fermentation process.

3. Process : optimize culture and fermentation conditions, biological growth kinetics,enzymology

The parameters and fermentation will be optimized in the designer's bioreactor for enhancing PKC fermentation. The related experiments will be designed to suit the requirement for SSF system model development.

Studies on biological growth kinetics will be conducted in order to improved the growth efficiency of the selected microorganism in the bioreactor.

The fermentation product will be evaluated on poultry. This will include growth performance of broiler fed with the fermented product and the quality of the poultry meat.

The fermented product also will be subjected to enzymology studies in order to understand the enzymatic mechanisms involved in the fermentation process of PKC.

Period of the project : 3 Years (2001 - 2004)

Progress/Achievements for 2002

New product
· Production of fermented Palm Kernel Cake (PKC) using static system has been done.

New process
· The bioreactor system will be improved for better performance.
· Optimization of culture and fermentation conditions for enhancing PKC bioconversion in the designer's bioreactor.
· Scan Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis of PKC and A. niger before and after fermentation process.
· Preliminary investigation of growth pattern of A. niger on PKC in flask system.
· 3 different determination methods of the microbial growth indicators have been established, these are chemical analysis of glucosamine, determination of glucosamine using HPLC and determination of ergosterol using HPLC.

Patents filed - 0

Discovery - 0

Publication - 0

Human Resource Development
· 14 Scientists
· 2 students taking MS and PhD
· Another 6 MS candidates are to register in 2002 & 2003.