Design modification of a mechanical rice straw shredder for organic composting.

Date

12-2015

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering

Major Course

Major in Agricultural Power and Machinery Engineering

College

College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Mark Keylord S. Onal

Restrictions

Restricted: Not available to the general public. Access is available only after consultation with author/thesis adviser and only to those bound by the confidentiality agreement.

Abstract

The design improvement of the mechanical rice straw shredded focused on the effect of different drum speed and blade-spacing, as well as the effect of varying the moisture content of rice straw to the shredding capacity and shredding consistency of the machine. The effective length of shredded rice straw for composting is from 3 cm to 6 cm. Preliminary tests showed that the shredding capacity of the machine was unsatisfactory at 10.54% with shredding capacity of 107.10 kg/h. The machine was modified and after running more tests, results showed that the drum speed and blade spacing combination that yielded the highest response was 1000 rpm drum speed and 2.5 cm spacing. The shredding capacity at this combination was 48.43 kg/h and the shredding consistency was 46.75%. Comparing the results of the modified versus the original design, the shredding capacity decreased by by a difference of 58.67 kg/h but the shredding consistency increased by a difference of 36.21%. Though the shredding capacity decreased, the increase in the quality of shredded rice straw was deemed as priority due to the importance of shredding quality rice straw for composting. It was also observed inn the study that rice straw moisture content dry basis should be maintained in the 14% to 81% range to avoid drawback of small dust particles and clogging. The mechanical rice straw shredder still has room for improvements. When optimized, the machine can help a lot of people who are in the field of organic composting.

Language

English

Location

UPLB College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT)

Call Number

LG 993.5 2015 A2 /O54

Document Type

Thesis

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