Category: News + Insights

Our Corporate VP of Service Mia Ivetic was featured on A Broadcast for Manufacturers podcast

The purpose of this show is to share knowledge, have fun and bring diverse, yet important topics in the manufacturing space to the forefront. Please listen to the episode here:

Breaking Barriers in Manufacturing – with Mia Ivetic

Uzelac Industries Implements Organizational Changes in Leadership

Milena and Ranko Ivetić promoted to Corporate Vice President positions

Greendale, WI (March 30, 2023) – Uzelac Industries, a leader in the design and fabrication of rotary drying systems for two decades, is pleased to announce organizational changes to their leadership team. Effective immediately, Milena and Ranko Ivetić have been promoted to Corporate Vice President positions. This change reflects their investment in Uzelac Industries ownership and their membership on the Board of Directors.

The change provides a framework for updating their titles as they progress through different roles in the organization. For now, Milena will continue her role as Service Manager and Ranko his role as Supply Chain Manager. In addition, Danella Uzelac has also become part of the ownership team and acts as a Director on the Uzelac Industries Board.

About Uzelac Industries, Inc

Uzelac Industries is a family-owned company based in Greendale, WI that has been a leader in rotary drying systems since 2003. Originally comprised of two operating divisions: Industrial MetalFab Specialties (Poja Sheet Metal) and Duske Drying systems. Together, these companies have over 40 years of experience in rotary drum dryer manufacturing. Uzelac Industries is committed to the core values of these two organizations shared: Integrity, Customer Satisfaction, and Innovation. Uzelac Industries has drying systems all over the world in many diverse industries.

Uzelac Industries Announces New President

Greendale, WI, December 2 – Uzelac Industries, a leader in rotary drying systems for almost two decades, announced today the appointment of Michael Hobbs as President of Uzelac Industries. For the past five years, Hobbs has been a core member of the Uzelac Industries leadership team as the Vice President and General manager. Hobbs is preceded by CEO and Founder, Michael Uzelac.

“We’re all very excited to have Mike take on the role of President,” said Michael Uzelac, Chairman of Uzelac Industries. “He has been a pleasure to work with and has played a vital role in the growth of our business. I’m confident he’s the right person for the job.”

During his time at Uzelac Industries, Hobbs has formed and maintained valuable relationships with partners, vendors, customers and employees. He has overseen day-to-day operations and has been an integral part of the company’s expansion in recent years.

Hobbs has expressed his excitement for the future of the company saying, “I am excited for this opportunity to grow and guide the Uzelac team as we prepare for continued success in the future.”

Hobbs brings an additional 27 years of diverse management and business experience from companies including, Siemens Building Technologies and Rockwell Automation. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Milwaukee School of Engineering. Outside of work, he enjoys hunting and spending time with family.

No poop for you: Manure supplies run short as fertilizer prices soar

CHICAGO, April 6 (Reuters) – For nearly two decades, Abe Sandquist has used every marketing tool he can think of to sell the back end of a cow. Poop, after all, needs to go somewhere. The Midwestern entrepreneur has worked hard to woo farmers on its benefits for their crops.

Now, facing a global shortage of commercial fertilizers made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more U.S. growers are knocking on his door. Sandquist says they’re clamoring to get their hands on something Old MacDonald would swear by: old-fashioned animal manure. Read More

A Uzelac Rotary Drying System can help turn your manure into a Grade A fertilizer! Call us today!

Single Pass Vs. Triple Pass Rotary Dryer – Understanding the Differences

Rotary dryers are a versatile option for reducing moisture in a product. They are used with a variety of materials across a wide range of industries. Some of the novel ways our customers use rotary dryers to help repurpose materials that used to go to waste, include:

• Turning poultry bedding into fertilizer
• Turning municipal sludge into fertilizer
• Drying and sterilizing dairy bedding for reuse
• Drying hemp to prolong storage life

Uzelac Industries produces two types of rotary drums for our rotary drying systems—single pass and triple pass. In this blog post, we will explain the differences between the two to help you decide which type will work better for your drying requirements.

Single Pass Drum for Rotary Dryer

Single pass drums consist of one cylinder internally flighted. The drum rotates at a constant speed and product moves in one direction along the drum from inlet end to outlet end while being showered through an air steam with a large cross-sectional area. This drum mechanism is better at handling larger volumes of product without choking out the airflow. If you need to dry dense material, the single pass rotary dyer is the right choice.

Single pass drums have greater flexibility in flight design, helping us optimize shower pattern to spread material more evenly across the air stream. Another option we have in flight configuration for single pass drums is adding spiral flights in different patterns throughout the drum. These flights act like a screw conveyor and, depending on the orientation, can be used to either increase or decrease retention time.

Triple Pass Drum for Rotary Dryer

Triple pass drums consist of three concentric flighted cylinders nested inside of each other. The drum rotates at a constant speed and product moves in a serpentine path through the three cylinders. Product enters the inside of the inner cylinder and travels from inlet end to outlet end. When it gets close to the outlet end, the product hits the headplate at the end of the intermediate cylinder and changes direction, passing between the inner cylinder and intermediate cylinder and travels back toward the inlet end. Once it gets to the inlet end, product hits the headplate at the end of the outer cylinder, changes direction, and travels back toward the outlet end, between the intermediate cylinder and outer cylinder.

Triple pass drums are ideal for handling light materials and products that are sensitive to higher temperatures. This dryer mechanism can run at a lower temperature and has a higher air velocity due to the reduced cross-sectional area between the cylinders. Triple pass drums are more expensive up front but are more efficient and tend to have a lower cost of operation. This is because these drums run at a lower temperature, leading to less fuel consumption, and typically have a smaller drum drive since product is evenly dispersed between the three cylinders.

Another benefit to triple pass drums is that they have a smaller footprint, usually around 20% shorter than the equivalent sized single pass drum. If space is very limited, we also offer a shorter, larger diameter version of most single and triple pass drums, called a big belly drum. Big belly drums allow for an increase in drum volume without an increase in length.

When you need a reliable drying solution, our rotary dryers get the job done. We serve customers in many industries. Talk to us about your requirements and we can guide you to choose between single pass and triple pass rotary dryers. Contact us online or send us an email.

Items Dried

Here are some of the products we have experience drying. if you do not see your desired product in this list, we have a Test Dryer in-house that we can use to test the viability of your product with our technology!

• Municipal and Industrial Wastewater Sludge
• Bone Meal
• Blood Meal
• Feather Meal
• Fish Meal
• Poultry Manure
• Dairy Manure Bedding
• Egg Shells
• Hemp
• Sand
• DAF
• Diatomaceous Earth
• Digestate
• Minerals
• Potash
• Ammonium Sulfate
• Wood Fiber/Waste (Biomass)
• Agricultural Waste
• Brushite
• Food Waste
• Compost
• Alfalfa
• Brewers Grain
• Distillers Grain
• Citrus Pulp
• Pineapple Bran
• Potato Waste

Chicken Litter and Anaerobic Digestion Explained

There are various types of organic products that can be used as a fertilizer, and one of those products is poultry litter. Poultry litter typically is broiler manure mixed with bedding (wood shavings or another type of biomass) as opposed to egg layer manure, which is typically collected without the use of bedding. The quality of a poultry litter varies with the type of poultry, litter, diet, and the collection and storage methods.

Rotary dryers help poultry agri-businesses process chicken litter and manure for use as other products. Both rotary and sludge dryers process waste products for reuse directly in the business or as saleable products.

Learn how poultry waste can make your business money instead of adding to your overhead with storage and landfilling costs.

How is Poultry Litter and Manure Used?

Chicken Litter Contains Valuable Nutrients

Poultry litter has been considered a great fertilizer for years as it contains numerous nutrients that plants require to grow, including:

• Nitrogen (N)
• Phosphorous (P)
• Potassium (K)

It also contains trace nutrients like copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and arsenic (As).

Poultry Manure and Litter Make Effective Soil Amendments

Chicken litter is also used for natural soil amendment as it can improve soil that was previously damaged by chemical fertilizers. Continuous crop cultivation and the use of chemical fertilizers negatively impacts overall soil quality. Adding poultry litter and manure has proven beneficial to increasing soil vitality, as follows:

• Decreases soil density
• Improves water retention
• Increases organic matter content
• Improves oxygen diffusion

Using Poultry Litter and Manure as Cattle and Fish Feed

Poultry manure or litter can be used as feed for cattle and fish. However, it is important to ensure you remove foreign materials such as feathers, plastic, ash, and debris first. The danger of contamination in unprocessed poultry litter is high because it contains pathogens such as:

• Clostridium
• Enterobacter spp.
• Salmonella
• Feed additives (arsenicals, coccidiostats, antibiotics)

Properly processed poultry waste mixed with minerals and protein makes a safe and economical filler for cattle feed. In fact, it’s been a feed ingredient for four decades.

How Poultry Litter is Converted to Biogas?

What has become more popular as of late with the initiative to “go green” is the use of poultry litter for biogas through anerobic digestion. The digesters extract methane and carbon dioxide, called biogas, which can be used for fuel, electricity, and heat.

Once digesters have done their job, you are left with solids that are referred to as digestate. This is what can be dried to create the organic fertilizer that is referenced above. The benefit to this is that there is zero waste. The digestate would not have to be landfilled, and it is turned into a saleable organic product.

Uzelac Industries has years of experience with digestate drying. Learn more about digestate drying and the benefits. Contact us online or feel free to give us a call 414-529-0240 to discuss your digestate drying needs.

References

https://www.permaculturenews.org/2016/03/11/poultry-litter-a-great-resource-to-utilize/

https://www.waste360.com/anaerobic-digestion/bioenergy-devco-enters-20-year-partnership-perdue-farms?_sm_byp=iVVT1tHVkv7LFvJq