The tri-annual event, which attracts key players from the feed industry worldwide, ended its first day in style with the presentation of the Victam International 2007 Innovation Awards, organised by Feed Tech the leading international magazine for the feed compounding industry.
Dick Ziggers, editor of Feed Tech and chairman of the jury panel presented the awards. The other members of the jury were Erik Eggelen, Menno Thomas, Leo Slütter and Alexander Feil. Main criteria for judgement were newness, originality, fundamental principles, importance to the sector, and complexity.

Gold Award
The Victam International 2007 Gold Award was won by Geelen Counterflow for their Energy Efficiency Indicator (EEI). The EEI gives the operators a visual and numerical indication of the efficiency of the current drying process. On the control display the operator can check how many kJ of energy are currently being consumed by the dryer, for every kg of water that is evaporated. This unit of measure (kJ/kg evaporation) is the critical indicator of efficiency for every dryer.

The jury unanimously placed the EEI on top of their list. "The system measures energy and moisture, which are very important items in today’s modern feed production, not only from a cost perspective, but also from a quality perspective," the jury motivated its choice. "The EEI measures all the drying variables in real time, which gives the operator the possibility to immediately adjust the drying process to the quality standards needed. And even in an already efficient counterflow dryer, a 10% extra energy efficiency can be obtained."