Our History
Hunt Moore studied solvent extraction of cottonseed at the University of Tennessee before World War II and implemented his knowledge with Allis Chalmers in Milwaukee WI, an early supplier of solvent plants, as one of their design and commissioning engineers in the 1940’s. Through a desire to return to the Mid-South, Hunt became the General Manager of Delta Products, Wilson, AR. He eventually helped in the selling of that company to Buckeye Cotton Oil Company, Memphis, TN, and then started N Hunt Moore Consulting Engineers on November 1st, 1951.
Among his first clients were Ranchers Cotton Oil Company, Fresno, CA, and Belzoni Oil Mill, Belzoni, MS. It was through the Belzoni job that Hunt established a partnership with Bauermeister from Hamburg, Germany to sell cracking and flaking mills in 1955. The Bauermeister connection led to the representation of the Hansa Foundry, which later was purchased by Walzen Irle of Deuz, Germany in 1962.
1950’s-1960’s
One of his early innovations that he marketed and sold to many plants was a Mineral Oil vent scrubbing system, which is still the basis of Mineral Oil systems to this day. Hunt Moore also designed and sold evaporators, condensers, heat exchangers, stripping columns, tanks, reboilers, stack cookers (crack conditioning and hull toasting), and rotary conditioners and dryers. His deep knowledge of the solvent extraction process allowed him to assist plants with other equipment such as the Extractor, Desolventizer-Toaster (DT), Dryer-Cooler (DC), the Solvent Water Separator (SWS), and Reboiler (wastewater evaporator or WWE).
The 1960s were a time of immense growth in the oilseed industry with many new plants being built and NHM helping most of them. To help with at that growth and fulfill the exclusive sales and service agreement for Bauermeister equipment, Frank Boling, a graduate of Moore Technical Institute in Memphis, joined NHM in 1962 as the company’s head draftsman. He became involved in Sales and eventually became the company’s lead technical resource.
1970’s-1980’s
In 1982 NHM began representation of Sulzer Escher Wyss and introduced “hot dehulling” for preparing soybeans for solvent extraction by using Fluid-Bed Technology. This system was the first for “in process” heating / drying/ dehulling soybeans in continuous flow. NHM and Sulzer Escher Wyss supplied 33 systems in the U. S., Canada, Europe and Asia. Many of these systems are in operation today and NHM still supports them by supplying spare parts and consulting with owners on operational issues.
With Bauermeister no longer part of NHM, we began representing Roskamp Champion in 1988 as their exclusive agents as well as engineering design consultants for their lines of Flakers, crackers and Champion Hammermills for USA and Canada
Rich’s international experience reinforced his understanding of the company’s importance in bringing European technology to the North American oilseed industry. Realizing that NHM lacked refining technology, he initiated NHM’s representation of B+B Engineering, GmbH, of Magdeburg, Germany, in September 2000.
N Hunt Moore, company founder, retired in August 2001 as CEO after 60 years’ service to the Oilseed Industry. With no successor in the family, the Moore’s sold the company to Rich who became President as of September 1st, 2001. Rich felt it was important to meet with the company’s European partners to extend the existing relationships. He was meeting with Krupp in Hamburg on 9/11/2001 and knowing the impact that it would have not only on the families affected by that tragedy but also on the impact on his newly acquired business, his faith was encouraged by the kindness that the Krupp leaders, the B+B managers and other Germans expressed about that tragedy.
While visiting press plants in the early 2000’s, Rich noted that several of them utilized dry extruder technology as the single preparation step on whole, non-dehulled soybeans. He observed that the extruders consumed excessive electrical energy and had high maintenance costs as the result of transferring electrical energy into mechanical energy. Likewise, the single step process was unyielding to moisture variations of the incoming soybeans. Therefore, NHM applied the fluid bed hot dehulling technology to a new 100 TPD soybean press plant in May 2006. The fluid bed was steam heated and was followed by single stage cracking, hull aspiration and secondary meats recovery. The heated, dehulled cracks were treated in a dry extruder with approximately 1/3rd the power compared to the single-step extruder plants in which the beans were not pre-heated. NHM’s theory that pre-heating allowed not only for dehulling but also for moisture control proved to be an advantage in achieving comparative residual oils in the cake with reduced electrical energy and lower maintenance costs.
In June 2007, NHM brought on John Mulholland as General Manager to lead business development and projects. John’s 27-year career with Ralston Purina, Cargill and Perdue in roles from maintenance supervisor to plant manager at 4 locations and eventually to Director of Crush and Refining Operations gave the strong technical knowledge to fill the void of Frank Boling in retirement. John brought an immediate impact to sales and service performance by constantly striving to see the customer’s point of view. John was long standing member of IOMSA, AOCS and others. He established himself as one of the industry’s leading subject matter experts, giving numerous presentations on technology, operations, maintenance and safety at their annual meetings, at A&M short courses, and at the plants he visited.
Until the mid-1970’s the market conditions for “high pro” meal was not significant enough to merit its production. But with increasing demand, NHM, along with Kice Industries and Rotex Separators, developed the first “front end” dehulling system at Cook Industries (now Bunge), Emporia, KS in 1974. This system which included drying, tempering, cracking, meat/hull sifting, hull aspiration and secondary meat recovery became the industry standard quickly. NHM designed and supplied many of these cold dehulling systems in the years to come.
In the mid-1970’s Walzen Irle introduced the “ORT” [Oilmill Roll Tough] nodular iron, indefinite chill flaking roll to the industry. This revolutionary roll became the standard for most flaking mill manufacturers.
1990’s-2001
In 1991 N Hunt Moore and Associates signed an agreement with Krupp Maschinentechnik GmbH (now Harburg Fruedenberger) of Hamburg, Germany to handle their screw presses and parts in USA and Canada. This was revised in 1994 to include solvent extraction equipment and, subsequently, NHM was Krupp’s partner for the design and supply of Incobrasa Industries’ soybean solvent extraction plant in Gilman, IL, in 1996.
After 13 years in various plant operations and corporate engineering roles with Bunge, AGP and Central Soya, Rich Barton joined NHM in September 1994 as its Process Engineer. Rich brought his training in and experience of Process Safety Management to NHM and helped seven plants implement their PSM programs. He also took over responsibility for commissioning equipment and systems. Among others, he started a fluid bed plant in Inchon, South Korea, and an expander at Cargill, Liverpool, England. Rich took Hunt’s place on NFPA 36, Standard for Solvent Extraction Plants, in 1997. He eventually served as its Chair for 10 years and continues today as a member.
2001 - Present
Originally developed in Germany, NHM adapted technology with permission from the creator, Klaus Weber, to supply wastewater “zero elimination” systems in which sparge steam for the DT is created from the reboiler discharge. NHM supplied several of these “ZELEM systems” over the years and still offers this design/system today.
With the desire to grow the business, Rich attended an AOCS Central America conference in 2002. He met several leaders from the Argentine soybean processing plants including Hector Autino of Bunge and the general manager of Inolasa, Rolando Charpentier (who happened to be an Aggie like Rich.) Rolando subsequently invited Rich to visit his plant in Costa Rica to evaluate a prep line upgrade. Consequently, Rich designed a 500 MTD warm dehulling system to utilize the existing dryers in place of fluid bed or vertical seed conditioner while adding components in the fluid bed dehulling system.
NHM has always been honored to work with leading companies and this trend continued after Rich acquired the company. In early 2012, NHM began representing Buhler group with NA headquarters in Plymouth, MN, for all its equipment for preparation of oilseeds in North America. While working on a project for Natural Plant Products (Salem OR) in 2019, NHM became a dealer for Chief Agri Industries for its silos and bins. Recognizing the potential of its inherent design features, NHM came to an agreement in 2023 with Visionary Fiber Technologies (Lockhart, TX) for its fiber reactors for liquid-liquid separation and extractions.
The early 2020’s saw another period of incredible growth in the Oilseed industry, driven mainly by biofuels (Renewable diesel, HVO, SAF) that placed more demands on the company. To help lead the growing number of projects, Scott Korte joined as Director of Engineering in September 2023. Scott brought 25 years of plant operations, plant design and project management experience from his time working for Cargill, BASF, Bunge and most recently as an oilseed Subject Matter Expert (SME) for an engineering and architectural company. A year later, NHM added Dennis Schott as Technical Services Manager to help Scott with projects and lead our field services. Dennis’s 25+ year experience includes drafting, piping design, mechanical expertise and project management.
As needs of industry evolved, so did NHM’s representation of technology companies. We have added Heliex Power’s Twin Screw Turbine technology for energy savings and electrical generation. To address clients’ needs in hexane free and feed mill markets, we have added Farmet extruders and presses to our portfolio. NHM continues to seek out and provide innovative technologies and solutions to serve the enhancements in the Oilseed Industry.
