SOME ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF PEA SHELLS | ||||
| Journal of Soil Sciences and Agricultural Engineering | ||||
| Article 2, Volume 33, Issue 10, October 2008, Page 7285-7297 PDF (613.4 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jssae.2008.200379 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Author | ||||
| H. M. El-Mashad | ||||
| Agric. Eng. Dep., Fac. of Agric., Mansoura University | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Drying of biomass is important to assure a year round supply of a certain feedstock and to minimize the loss of organic matter during storage. Egypt produces about 0.15 million ton of pea shells annually that can be used for the production of biofuel, compost and other valuable products. The main objective of this study was to study some physical properties (i.e., mass of an individual shell, bulk density, particle density and porosity) that affect the design of handling and processing equipment of this feedstock. Another objective was to determine the sun-drying time required to reach a moisture content at which it is possible to safely store pea shells without the loss of organic matter and without jeopardizing the feedstock to self ignition and spoilage by microorganisms or fungi. Sun-drying experiments were conducted during March 2008 under El-Mansoura weather conditions. The effects of drying tray type and the initial mass loading per unit exposed area on drying time were studied. Drying was carried out using galvanized screen and particleboard trays at three initial mass loadings of 2, 4 and 8 kg [shells]/m2. The results showed that the average weight of an individual shell was 2.11 (±1.11) g. High correlations were found between moisture content and each of the studied physical properties. The particleboard drying trays showed relatively higher drying rates than the screen trays. Drying curves were well described by an exponential function. Most of drying occurs in the falling rate period. Higher drying rates were observed under the lower initial mass loading than the higher mass loadings. It was possible to obtain a moisture content of about 20% (w. b.) after sun-drying the shells for 2.3 days at an initial mass loading of 2 kg/m2. To obtain a comparable moisture at the initial mass loadings of 4 and 8 kg/m2, shells should be dried for about 4 days. | ||||
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