Design and Experiment of Black Soldier Fly Frass Mixture Separation through a Cylinder Sieve with Different Rotation Speeds

Abstract

A differential separation trommel screener was developed to solve the problems of the impurity content in insects and the high rate of insect impurities in the separation of black soldier fly (BSF) sand mixture. Moreover, the mechanical and physical properties of the BSF sand and its bonding contact model were examined. With the rotational speed of the trommel and the spikes and the inclination of the trommel as the experimental factors, their motion characteristics were analyzed and their value ranges were determined. In addition, the impurity content in the insects and the rate of insect impurities were selected as the test indicators. The Box–Behnken test was performed, the response surface regression model was built, and the parameters were optimized. The results indicated that the respective test factors, the impurity content and the insect rate, followed the following order of significance: the trommel rotation speed, spike teeth rotation speed, and trommel screener inclination. At the trommel rotation speed of 47.37 r/min, the speed of the spike teeth reached 24.16 r/min, the inclination angle of the trommel was 5°, the impurity content was 6.0%, and the insect rate reached 1.2%. The results of the bench test indicated that the average impurity content was 5.87% and the average insect rate was 1.20%. The results of this study provide a reference for the improvement and optimization of the separation structure of the BSF sand mixture.