Construction and Evaluation of Prototype Screw Pelleting Machine for Sugar Beet Tops

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to construct and evaluate a prototype screw pelleting machine to be used for sugar beet tops. Pelleting machine was fabricated on a private workshop in Dosuq City and tested at Sakha Animal Production Research Station Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate during summer season of 2010. The effect of screw revolving speeds, raw material moisture content and die hole diameters on machine productivity, power requirement, energy consumed and pelleting cost. Also, the effect of tested parameters on pellets quality such as stiffness, durability and pellets bulk density were taken into consideration. Hence the pellets were subjected to heated air at 70 oC, during their treatment in the drying unit. Results indicated that, the optimum operating conditions of the proposed prototype was at screw revolving speed of 180 rpm, raw materials moisture content of 25.74 % (w.b) and die hole diameter of 16 mm. Whereas, it gave machine productivity of 0.098 Mg/h, power requirement of 3.10 kW and energy consumed of about 31.71 kW.h/Mg. Moreover, the optimum operating conditions gave the best pellets quality as well as pellets stiffness of 135.5 N, durability of 95.43 % and pellets bulk density of about 2.136 g/cm 3 . However, the cost calculations proved that, the pelleting cost by using the proposed prototype was reached about 105.20 EGP/Mg. INTRODUCTION ugar beet is an important crop, not only for sugar production, but also for producing fodder and organic matter for the soil. The cultivated area of sugar beet were 104,525 hectare gave 5,138,190 of sugar beet roots and 1,493,226 tons tops, respectively (ASMOA, 2009). Beet tops consist of about one third crown and two thirds leaves.