The relentless progress in agricultural and processing technologies, as well as sustainability demands and customer expectations, are driving input suppliers in the agricultural sector to consider how they can redefine and reshape their products in order to deliver constant innovation, but at the same time remain cost effective with operational efficiency.
Afrikelp is a company invested in delivering good quality products to our customers and has recently invested in new infrastructure and supporting technologies. We are certain that this approach and our investments to improve the quality of our products, will most certainly support sustainable farming in the long run while also reducing some of the risks associated with agriculture.
Afrikelp specialises in natural growth stimulants for green plants. A liquid seaweed concentrate containing the natural hormone auxin, is freshly harvested from the fast-growing brown kelp, Ecklonia maxima, and is applied to the foliage or roots as a natural biostimulant to help plants extract essential nutrients from the soil more efficiently.
According to Dr Dunesha Naicker, Production and Process Improvement Manager at the company, they identified the Hiller Decanter as the ideal technology to improve the solid liquid separation of the chopped kelp from the liquid kelp. “This reduced our dependency of having three filtration systems to just one, improving our yield and efficiency tremendously,” she said.
The Hiller Decanter is also used at leading food and beverage plants as well as mines and runs at a rate of 1 000 l/h. A mixture of the finely chopped seaweed with water is pumped through the decanter at a high acceleration speed, ensuring the solids are pressed to their maximum and that the liquids separate more effectively.
This liquid extract, including Afrikelp final products are also tested extensively in Afrikelp’s laboratories. “We have embarked on a journey to improve our inhouse quality control and are now able to conduct contamination, pH, conductivity, total polyphenols, moisture, rooting and germination assay tests locally in South Africa. This allows us to have a hands-on approach and maintain our values as a company. It also provides us with the opportunity to be more efficient with the effective pressing action and high acceleration,” says Dr Naicker.
In addition to in-house analyses, all liquid extracts are tested at the Technical University of Dresden in Germany, ensuring alignment and consistency of our results to maintain the highest quality products at all times.
Another important new purchase for Afrikelp was an Agilent triple quadruple liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, or LC-MS device. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry is an analytical chemistry technique that combines the physical separation capabilities of liquid chromatography (or HPLC) with the mass analysis capabilities of mass spectrometry (MS).
The LC-MS is an analytical technique used to identify the different components in a mixture. When this mixture is introduced into the column of the LC, it is partially, or completely, separated into the various components or particles. These components are separated in a specific sequence and the MS is used to detect the separated components by displaying the molecular weights.
This method now enables the company to test the full plant hormone range in the kelp, including auxin, cytokinin, amino acids and other key plant components. This is important as it empowers the company by obtaining a precise and accurate measure of the plant hormones, consequently allowing them to determine more effectively how their products will perform in the field.
It also means that Afrikelp can develop and improve their processes at a faster rate without the constraints of sample sizes, courier waiting periods and timing of analyses.
For the farmers, it means they can be assured of receiving a product that has gone through an extensive screening process. This supports Afrikelp’s goal of delivering a product on farm that is of consistently high quality.
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