The Opportunities of Sustainable Biomass Ashes and Poultry Manure Recycling for Granulated Fertilizers

Abstract

A need for the disposal of poultry manure and the reduction of its impact on the environment encourages the search for cleaner and more efficient ways to utilize and recycle production waste. It is known that granulated ash and manure are the most effective alternatives for ash and manure recycling, as compared to the unprocessed product. This paper presents an investigation of ash and poultry manure recycling for granulated fertilizers. Accepted standard experimental methods were used. The physical and mechanical characteristics of the granules, elemental composition ratio, and the process of compression of the raw material mill were determined experimentally. This research shows that, when a higher ash concentration was determined, the initial bulk density was larger and the density and pressure in the granulation process increases faster. The content of ash in the raw material increased granule strength; however, when increasing the ash mass in the raw material from 25% to 50%, energy consumption increased from 6.59 kJ·kg−1 to 17.72 kJ·kg−1. The process of compression of the raw material mill was obtained in two stages. In the first stage of compression, the mass density varied from 3–11 kg·m−3 and the pressure varied from 1.25–8.27 MPa. In the second pressure stage, the mass deformation was elastic and the pressure process was described by indicator functions.