Grain Elevator, Feed Mill, and Seed Processing Facility Design

Process Equipment & Design LLC provides independent engineering and three-dimensional facility design services for the grain handling, animal feed manufacturing, and seed processing industries. Founded by Dwight E. Kinzer in 1997, the company specializes in the planning and design of bulk material processing systems ranging from small facility improvements to complete greenfield plant developments.

With more than four decades of experience in agricultural process engineering, Dwight Kinzer has worked on the design and evaluation of numerous grain handling, feed manufacturing, and seed processing facilities. Projects have included both new construction and modernization of existing plants across the United States and internationally.

All engineering and design work is performed directly by Dwight Kinzer. This approach ensures that each project benefits from experienced, practical engineering focused on reliability, efficiency, and constructability. Facilities are typically developed using detailed three-dimensional plant models that allow equipment placement, conveyor routing, structural clearances, and maintenance access to be evaluated before construction begins.

Process Equipment & Design LLC operates as an independent engineering service. The company does not sell equipment, represent manufacturers, or act as a contractor. This independence allows recommendations to be based solely on engineering performance and the specific requirements of each client’s process.

Whether assisting with a single equipment installation or the complete design of a new processing facility, the objective remains the same: to develop practical, efficient systems that can be constructed and operated successfully in real-world industrial environments.

About Dwight E. Kinzer

Dwight E. Kinzer is an agricultural process engineer with more than forty years of experience designing systems for handling and processing bulk agricultural materials. Throughout his career he has worked extensively in the grain handling, animal feed manufacturing, and seed processing industries, developing facility designs that integrate process flow, mechanical systems, and plant layout.

Mr. Kinzer began his career working on the design and construction of agricultural processing facilities and later established Process Equipment & Design LLC in 1997 to provide independent engineering and design services to the industry.

His work has included the design of grain elevators, feed mills, seed processing plants, receiving and load-out systems, bulk storage facilities, and integrated material handling systems. Projects have ranged from small facility upgrades to large commercial agricultural processing plants.

A core component of his work is the development of detailed three-dimensional plant models. These models allow equipment placement, conveyor routing, structural clearances, and maintenance access to be verified during the design phase. By resolving potential conflicts before construction begins, 3D modeling reduces costly field changes and improves overall project efficiency.

Because Process Equipment & Design LLC operates as an independent engineering service, recommendations are based solely on engineering performance and the specific needs of each client’s operation.

Typical Engineering Services and Deliverables

Projects are tailored to the needs of each client and may include a combination of engineering analysis, facility planning, and system design.

Typical services include:

Facility Master Planning

Evaluation of existing processing facilities
Long-term expansion planning
Site layout development
Process flow development

Process and System Design

Grain receiving and storage systems
Feed manufacturing facilities
Seed conditioning and processing plants
Bulk material conveying and handling systems

Engineering Documentation

Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs)
Equipment layout drawings
Conveyor routing layouts
Preliminary equipment specifications

3D Facility Modeling

Complete three-dimensional plant models
Equipment placement and structural coordination
Maintenance access verification
Visualization of plant operation prior to construction

Project Development Support

Budgetary cost estimating
Coordination with equipment suppliers and contractors
Review of contractor proposals
Assistance during project planning and construction phases

Each project is developed with the objective of creating systems that can be constructed efficiently and operated reliably in real industrial environments.

Why Clients Work With Process Equipment & Design

More than 40 years of industry experience
Projects benefit from decades of practical engineering experience designing and evaluating grain handling and feed processing facilities.

Independent engineering recommendations
The company does not sell equipment or represent manufacturers. All system recommendations are based solely on engineering performance and client requirements.

Direct involvement of the engineer
All engineering and design work is performed directly by Dwight Kinzer rather than delegated through multiple layers of staff.

Efficient facility development using 3D modeling
Three-dimensional plant modeling allows systems to be evaluated during the design phase, reducing construction conflicts and improving project efficiency.

Experience with real operating facilities
Designs are developed with practical plant operation, maintenance access, and long-term reliability in mind.

Industry Experience

Process Equipment & Design LLC has provided engineering and design assistance for a wide range of agricultural processing facilities including:

Grain receiving and storage systems
Commercial grain elevators
Feed manufacturing plants
Seed conditioning and processing facilities
Bulk ingredient receiving and load-out systems
Commodity storage and handling systems
Plant expansions and modernization projects

Projects have included both greenfield plant development and upgrades to existing facilities where improved material handling efficiency or increased production capacity was required.

Project Inquiries

Process Equipment & Design LLC works with grain companies, feed manufacturers, seed processors, and agricultural businesses seeking experienced engineering assistance for new facilities or plant upgrades.

For project inquiries or to discuss a potential project, please contact:

Dwight E. Kinzer
Process Equipment & Design LLC

Email: dwight@grainfeedseed.com
Phone: (620) 951-4211

poultry & SwineFeed Mill Engineerng
60 TPH Grind-Ingredient Batch-Mix
30 TPH CPM Pellet Mill_7730

3D CAD, Design, and Engineering of Poultry & Swine Feed Mill by: Dwight Kinzer
using Autodesk Inventor Professional software

Process Equipment & Design, LLC
Sedgwick, Kansas, USA

www.grainfeedseed.com

Feed Mill Design Services

Dwight Kinzer 620-951-4211

USA and International Animal Feed Mill Engineering & Design Experience:

Aquaculture;
Cattle
Dairy;
General Purpose;
Poultry; and
Swine

Animal Feed Mill Engineering, Design, and Master Planning:

Bolted Steel Ingredient & Finished-Fee Bins & Hoppers;
Ingredient Receiving Systems;
Bulk Grain & Ingredient Storage;
Grinding Systems;
- Roller Grinders
- Hammermill
Batching Systems;
Dosing Systems;
Mixing Systems;
Pelleting Systems;
Packaging Systems; and
Loadout Systems.

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The Hex-Pak reduces the turnkey cost of building segregated bulk storage by up to 70% by combining the benefits and features of the Modular Load-Bearing Structural Column with the Track-And-Trolley Conveyor Guidance System. The Hex-Pak uses hexagonal bins with shared walls that reduce by up to 40% the square footage of wall required compared to a shared wall square bin system, and up to 39% less square footage of wall compared to a plurality of segregated bulk storage.

The track-and-trolley conveyor guidance system significantly reduces distribution conveyance requirements by up to 94% and reclaim conveyance by up to 85%, which of course reduces energy and maintenance needs. But possibly just as important, the distribution track-and-trolley conveyor guidance system eliminates intermediate discharge gates, thus eliminating a primary source of commingling.

Customer Description
In the agricultural sector, there are at least six markets for the Hex-Pak:
1. Commercial warehouses, also known as commercial elevators or commercial grain storage
a. Identity preserved storage – cluster of 6 to 40 bins at 5,000 to 30,000 bushels/bin
b. Rice storage – cluster of 6 to 40 bins at 5,000 to 30,000 bushels/bin
c. In conjunction with grain dryers – cluster of 6 to 9 bins
d. Bulk fertilizer and seed storage – cluster of 6 to 18 bins at 1,000 to 10,000 bushels/bin
e. Overhead loadout – cluster of 6 to 12 bins at 1.000 to 3,000 bushels/bin
2. Seed industry
a. Bulk storage bins – cluster of 6 to hundreds of bins, at 1,000 to 5,000 bushels/bins
b. Overhead loadout – cluster of 6 to 12 bins at 1,000 to 3,000 bushels/bin
c. Complete seed plants
d. Corn seed dryers
3. Animal feed manufacturing
a. Bulk ingredient storage
b. Complete feedmills
4. Edible pulses and legumes
a. Organic grain processors
b. Identity preserved processors
c. Edible bean cleaning and packaging facilities
5. Nut processors
a. Identity preserved storage - cluster of 6 to 40 bins at 5,000 to 30,000 bushels/bin
6. Farm storage
a. Identity preserved storage – cluster of 6 to 40 bins at 5,000 to 30,000 bushels/bin
b. Combined systems such as IP storage, grain/seed cleaning, grain drying, and feed mill.

The entire grain industry worldwide has experienced at least some trends shifting from a bulk commodity mindset to one of product differentiation and segmentation, trace-ability from farm to processor, and contract production of specific traits for a targeted purpose. However, the expense of shifting from a bulk infrastructure to one based upon segregation has currently been prohibitive for most commodities due to the high cost of conventional segregated storage. The global rice industry is currently changing from bag storage to segregated bulk storage, but the high expense of segregated systems is hindering modernization.

A major roadblock to the progress of biotechnology in agriculture is the current grain handling and storage infrastructure, which is comprised of large storage bins that do not provide for segregation of grains based upon grower, variety, genetically modified organism (GMO) status, protein or moisture levels, or other characteristics. Current material handling systems also have inherent flaws that commingle the grains.

Traditional building technology can only provide a high purity level of segregation at low storage volumes and handling capacities similar to seed production facilities, which are very expensive to build. High-capacity commodity handling and storage terminals that have large numbers of segmented silos with high purity of confinement are difficult to design and construct. Although GMOs and Identity Preserved (IP) grain can provide tremendous benefit to the grower, processor, and humanity in general, even the premium that can be realized from these types of gains cannot offset the current high cost of available systems. This limitation becomes especially significant when this infrastructure must be built along multiple points of the distribution chain - the grower, the commercial elevators, the port facilities, and the processors.

“Point-of-Origin” trace-ability is currently difficult to achieve because the majority of commercial and farm grain storage infrastructure is built for efficient handling and storage of large quantities of bulk materials. “Point of Origin” traces all grain, feed ingredients, and foodstuffs to origin to minimize the liability risk to the processor should something go amiss down the process chain, or as a result of disease or other contamination. As an example, imagine the costs of packaged product recalls without such trace-ability. If fifty farmers collectively store their grain in a 200,000-bushel storage silo at the local grain elevator, how can the grain be traced to origin once it is made into a corn chip? For instance, in the case of a product recall involving GMO contamination, the processor would prefer to recall the product made from a forty-acre, 4,000-bushel field that cross-pollinated with a trait-specific GMO, but, as is the case today, the processor must recall all of the package products originating from the 200,000 bushels that were commingled in a large storage tank.

The commercial grain industry can use a Hex-Pak to supplement their existing large round storage bins. The Hex-Pak would allow the farmer and elevators to take advantage of premiums that would otherwise be lost, by providing a means to cost effectively segregate the premium grades from lesser grades. Growers and elevators would also like to be able to take advantage of opportunities requiring trace-ability, for storing specialty crops, identity preservation, and for segregating stored commodities based upon moisture, protein, grade, and classification. The industry furthermore has a need for temporary storage during GMO testing, grading, and classification before transferring the grain to a larger bin.

The USDA estimates about 300 million bushels of commercial grain storage is built each year in the United States. There are over 9,000 commercial grain warehouses in the US, and a good many need a Hex-Pak to augment their large commercial storage bins. This translates into 9,000 potential customers in the US alone for this million to multi-million dollar patented product with a good profit margin.

It has been suggested that the Hex-Pak is perfect for rice because rice is segregated based upon many parameters. Many parts of the global rice industry are only recently transforming from bag to bulk storage, but large round bins are not suitable due to the amount of segregation that is required. The lack of suitable, economical segregated storage has hindered the modernization of the rice industry.

The seed genetics business can now provide the grower and/or processor specific crop traits for targeted purposes, and these different varieties can have characteristics that range from natural pesticides residing within the plant to ward off insects, to high oil and protein levels for a pig farmer, to enzymes and proteins for industrial chemical or pharmaceutical manufacturing purposes.

Just like the feed industry, meaningful data is lacking on how many seed facilities are built a year in North America or globally. Many seed companies spend considerable amounts of capital on square bolted bins for various aspects of the post-harvest storage (primarily), drying (corn seed), conditioning, treating, and packaging processes. The Hex-Pak concept is perfect for the seed industry and it would appreciate the reduction in capital outlays for segregation. As the cost is reduced for segregated storage structures, the seed companies will most likely find additional uses for the Hex-Pak. Seed companies naturally want to preserve an identity as much as possible and do not like to blend lots of seed together. The seed industry is a natural fit for the Hex-Pak.

The reason large animal feed manufacturing facilities are still constructed with slip-formed concrete is due to the limitations of a bolted steel structure. A high capacity feed production process requires more ingredient storage. The conventional square bolted steel bin is generally limited to a 10 foot wall with 100 cubic foot of storage per foot of sidewall height compared to the slip form concrete that can custom design the size and shape of each ingredient bin for its storage requirements. A hexagon silo with a 10-foot wall provides 259.8 cubic foot of storage per foot of sidewall height, which will allow a shared-wall, bolted steel structure to store quantities required for large throughput facilities. The reduced cost of small to medium sized feed mills using the Hex-Pak design might also encourage large vertically integrated meat producers to rethink a mammoth centrally located feed plant for a series of smaller feed mills each dedicated to a region of barns.

Just like the grain, feed, and seed industries, the nut industry desires the ability to segregate their nuts into a wide spectrum of grades and sizes, but cannot justify the cost of segregated infrastructure.

Farmers, especially large farming operations, strive to take advantage of premiums but can be limited in their options due to the high cost of multiple storage bins. What may be the greatest opportunity for the Hex-Pak to the farming community is its ability to cost-effectively incorporate a wide number of operations into one structure such as seed cleaning, feed manufacturing, grain cleaning, truck load-out bins, grain drying as well as storage for bulk purchases of ingredients and seed.

Market Comparison
Current technology for constructing segregated storage revolves primarily around three types of storage: 1) Round steel hopper bins (e.g. Wheatland, Meridian, Fresien)
2) Square steel bolt together (commonly seen in feed and seed mills), and
3) Cement slip form construction (larger grain and feed facilities).

Several issues exist with all of these designs. Round steel hopper systems take up a large amount of real estate, require extensive conveyance equipment, and have clean out and segregation challenges related primarily to the intermediate discharges. Square steel systems are expensive to construct as they require cranes and millwrights and they also still require a large amount of conveying equipment. Concrete slip form silos are expensive but useful for high through put facilities.

A comparison of segregated storage systems (Appendix B and C) demonstrates that the substantial savings in steel and conveyance equipment result in a very cost effective and efficient segregated storage
system. Additional benefits include efficient use of land space (a major challenge for round steel storage systems), infinite variability of design for customer needs, and finally the most important: meeting the needs of a customer who would prefer segregated storage for their operation, but today does not have it due to practicality of traditional systems, their costs, and space restraints.

Below (and in Appendix C) is a drawing showing two types of traditional segregated bulk storage systems:
1. A cluster of individual round hopper bottom silos
2. A cluster of shared wall square hopper bottom bins

As can be seen on the right side of this drawing, a square shared-wall bin with a ten-foot wall is one and a half times taller than the Hex-Pak to hold the same volume, so not only does the Hex-Pak require 40% less square foot of wall than the square bin, but the Hex-Pak walls are lighter in gauge. A 40% reduction of materials translates to a 40% reduction of construction expense. However, the Hex-Pak will require more square footage of bin ceiling and/or roof and the hoppers will be larger than the shared wall square bins. In this example, the square bins require 869-feet of conveyance with 41 intermediate discharge gates versus the Hex-Pak with 131-feet of conveyor without any intermediate discharge gates.

On the left side of the drawing is a group of 36 round hopper bottom silos. The round bin has what is termed ‘hoop strength’, so the round bin will have a lighter gauge wall than the Hex-Pak. However, a plurality of round bins requires up to 39% more square footage of wall than a shared wall hexagon.

Another drawback of a plurality of round hopper bottom bins is their conveyance requirements, and auxiliary accessories such as catwalks, support towers, and intermediate discharge gates. In this example, the round bins require 2,161feet of conveyors, 39 intermediate discharge gates, and 1,153feet of catwalk with 15 support towers. In comparison, the Hex-Pak has 131feet of conveyor, no intermediate discharge gates, and 60feet of catwalk.

Seed & Edible Processing Design Services

Dwight Kinzer 620-951-4211

USA and International Seed Cleaning Engineering, Design, & Layout Experience:

Hybrid Corn Seeds;
Soybean Seeds;
Cereal Grains (barley, wheat);
Legumes (alfalfa, beans, peas, lentils);
Vegetable Seeds; and
Flower Seeds.

Edible Systems Design & Engineering Experience:

Pinto Beans;
Navy Beans;
Kidney Beans; and
Cereal Grain Processing.

3D CAD, Design, and Engineering of Seed Cleaning & Edible Bean Systems:

Aspiration;
Color, Optical, Thermal Sorting;
Density (gravity separator);
Dust Collection for precise aspiration;
General Exhaust Dust Collection for white (grain) & red (treated) dust;
Gentle Handling conveyors, elevators, and storage;
Length (indent);
Packaging (small-bag to tote-bag);
Seed Dryers;
Texture (destoners, dodder mills); and
Width (graders).

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Concrete Slipform Grain Elevator 110 Rail Car Shuttle loading of corn, soybeans, wheat, canola, barley 10,000 BPH Grain Dryer

Grain Storage System Design Services

Dwight Kinzer 620-951-4211

USA and International Grain Storage Engineering & Design Experience:

Barley;
Canola;
Chickpeas;
Commercial Grain Storage Systems;
Corn;
Ethanol Corn Storage Systems;
Ethanol Dried Distillers Grains (DDG) Storage & Loadout;
Green & Yellow Field Peas;
Identity Preserved Segregated Storage;
Lentils;
On-Farm Grain Storage Systems; and
Strategic Long-Term Grain Storage.

3D CAD, Design, and Engineering of Grain Systems:

Aeration and Cooling of Stored Grains;
Automation;
Corrugated Galvanized Steel Grain Storage Bins;
Concrete Silos for Grain Storage;
Grain Cleaning Systems;
Grain Drying Systems;
Ground Pile Grain Storage – Temporary Bunker;
Hi-Speed Rail and Truck Receiving and Loadout Systems;
Hoop Barn Grain Storage;
Segregated Storage for Identity Preserved Commodities; and
Strategic Grain Storage Systems.

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