MANUFACTURE AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A LOCAL COMPOST SCREENING UNIT FOR MAXIMUM PRODUCT QUALITY

Abstract

Experiments were carried out to manufacture and evaluate the performance of a small scale screening unit suitable for compost cleaning. The machine performance was studied as a function of change in material feed rate, sieve speed, sieve inclination angle and compost moisture content. Performance evaluation of the manufactured machine was carried out in terms of machine productivity, separating efficiency compost losses, cleaning efficiency, required power, energy requirements and criterion cost. The experimental results reveal that compost losses as well as criterion costs were minimum while separating and cleaning efficiencies were maximum under the following conditions: - The use of the developed compost cleaning unit. - Operate the developed machine at a sieve speed of between 30 to 40 rpm (1.57 to 2.1 m/s). - Operate the developed machine at a sieve inclination angle of between 10 to 15 degrees. - Clean compost at a moisture content of about 40%. - Operate the developed machine at a feed rate of between 3.0 to 4.5 Mg/h.