Abstract:
The world’s dependence on
chemical fertilizer as the primary source for
enriching agricultural fields is continually
increasing that cause nature pollution. This
has led researchers to aggressively
investigate renewable fertilizer resources,
biomass, to produce organic crops and
reduced wastage. Poultry litter is a bulk
solid and biomass feed stocks. Flow
behavior of bulk solid is a critical factor in
designing and developing suitable
equipments (e.g. pelletizing machine). The
bulk density, tap density, Carr’s index and
powder avalanche time technique were
applied to evaluate the flow properties of
poultry litter. The experiments were carried
out at moisture content (10, 20 and 30%
w.b.), particle size (0.3, 0.6 and 1.18 mm)
for the bulk and tap densities as well as
Carr’s index. In addition to the moisture
content (10, 20 and 30 %w.b.) and particle
size (0.3, 0.6 and 1.18 mm) the rotational
speed of drum (0.5, 1 and1.5 rpm) were also
investigated for the avalanche time. The
results showed that with increasing moisture
content Carr’s index increased significantly
(P<0.01) in the ranges of 16.2% to 18.5%
and with increasing particle size the Carr’s
index decreased from 20.35% to 14.78%.
The litter powder avalanche time (AT)
increased significantly (P<0.01) with
increasing moisture content and decreasing
rotational speed and particle size. The bulk
and tap densities of the litter powder was
decreased with increasing moisture content
and increasing the particle size. The bulk
and tap densities of the driest and finest
poultry litter sample were higher than other
ones.
