ENERGY REQUIRED FOR CUTTING OPERATION OF SOME FIELD CROP RESIDUES

Abstract

Most of the crop residues are by-products from harvesting of Agricultural crops. Large quantities of crop residues are produced annually in Egypt causing a serious problem facing the agricultural producers. However, the cutting process of crop residues for size reduction to be suitable for storing, handing, and recycling for various uses is an efficient and simplest methods of using the crop residues. Therefore, in this study, the performance of an experimental crop residues cutting machine is evaluated to determine the energy requirements for cutting operation of three different crop residues (cotton stalks, corn stalks and rice straw). The effect of cutting drum speed, knife edge angle, and clearance distance on the machine productivity, fuel consumption, required power, specific consumed energy, cutting efficiency and the estimated cost of machine operation were, also, discussed. The machine evaluated at five cutting drum speeds 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500 and 1600 rpm (8.29, 8.98, 9.68, 10.37 and 11.06 m/s); five knife edge angle (20°, 25°, 30°, 35° and 40°); and five clearance distance (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5mm). The results, At 1600 rpm cutting drum speed, 20° knife edge angle and 1mm clearance distance, showed that the machine productivity, fuel consumption, required power, specific consumption, energy, maximum cutting efficiency and estimated cost of machine operation were: • for cotton stalks (20.56% Mcwb): 0.0476 ton/h, 0.48 L/h, 1.328kw, 41.89 kwh/ton, 67.70%, and 150.23EGP/ton, respectively; • for corn stalks (25.64% Mcwb) : 0.0499 ton/h,0.504 l/h,1.394kw, 47.64kwh/ton,47.59%and147.83 EGP/ton,respectively; and • for rice straw (14.8% Mcwb): 0.0595 ton/h,0.624 L/h, 1.726 kw,54.73 kwh/ton, 62.75%, and 150.23 EGP/ton, respectively.