Designing of a Pellet Wood Pellet Making Machine

Author

Shoko, Tinotenda

Title

Designing of a Pellet Wood Pellet Making Machine

Abstract

Due to increase in energy crisis, increase of electricity prices load shading new technologies are implemented to make use of biomass waste. This study is mainly focusing on the designing of a wood pellet making machine which is used to produce pellets for biomass stover and simulate the data collected from pellets produced by the machine. To achieve this the researcher must design a model of a wood pellet making machine, calculate the dimensions for the parts of the model and simulates the data collected from the produced pellets. To get information about the model the researcher use some of the literature to design the model and simulate the data. The researcher also uses the Excel to calculate some equations and it also construct the graphs. A prototype of the pelleting machine was designed and developed for affordability. The machine was also tested to evaluate its performance. The machine consisted of a screw conveyor, die, barrel and hopper. It can be driven by an electric motor or a prime mover. The machine was tested with sawdust and at different levels of moisture content using 500, 750 and 1000 cm3 each of water. The best pellets were formed using 750 cm3. The average specific energy consumption when 750 cm3 of starch binder was used was 0.69 kWh/kg while it was 0.93 kWh/kg when water was used as preconditioner. The density of the pellets varied between 0.7 and 1 g/cm3. This machine can be manufactured at a local machine shop for small-scale especially in the communities where there is a lot of biomass in developing countries.

Date

2023

Publisher

BUSE

Keywords

Designing

Pellet Wood

Supervisor

Dr Shonhiwa`