The Characteristics of Shredded Straw and Hay Biomass—Part 1—Whole Mixture

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics of shredded biomass from hay, straw and their mix in the ratio 1:1 using a sieve separator with oscillatory motion in the horizontal plane. The research was carried out according to the method described in ANSI/ASAE S424.1 standard. It was found that the geometric mean value of particle sizes xg of shredded biomass from hay, straw and their mix of dimension: 3.45, 3.21 and 2.14 mm, respectively, the greatest impact had the smallest fraction, considered to 10th percentile of cumulative weight distribution x10 with dimensions 0.32, 0.21 and 0.06 mm, respectively. For hay, straw and mix mass relative span RSm of fines was 3.51, 4.02 and 6.19, respectively, and was negatively correlated with the distribution uniformity index Iu. That was confirmed by lower values of graphic kurtosis Kg, inclusive graphic skewness GSi and coefficient of uniformity Cu, which correlated positively with the coefficient of gradation Cg and distribution geometric standard deviation of the high GSD1, low GSD2 and total GSD12 regions distributions. All of biomass particles size distributions belonged to “very poorly sorted” category and were “very fine skewed” and “leptokurtic”. Determine the suitability of the material on the basis of particle size distribution parameters for pressure agglomeration process is an invaluable practical application of this research. It was stated that mix of hay and straw is a preferable material for making pellets according to its better fragmentation. However it is less homogenous as a result of high share of fine particles at dimension under 1.65 mm. The particle size distribution of finest particles should be verified.