Development and Performance Evaluation of Sugarcane Bagasse Grinding and Pelletizing Machine for Livestock Feed Production

This study endeavored to investigate the performance of the developed sugarcane bagasse grinding and pelletizing machine for livestock feed production. Bagasse is the residual fiber resulting from the extraction of sugarcane juice. In this study, sun dried bagasse collected from sugar industries were used as raw material in the testing of the fabricated prototype. Preliminary testing results revealed that grinder and pelletizer feed rates were 20 grams per 19 seconds feeding interval, 500 grams mixture per 125 seconds feeding interval, respectively. The grinding time was 76 seconds for every 100 grams of bagasse while pelletizing time was 500 seconds for every 1990 grams mixture containing 100 grams bagasse. The acceptable grinding discs clearance was obtained by making one-half turn in the knob or 180 degrees turn clockwise. Final performance evaluation results showed that the average grinding rate for 500-g raw bagasse was 1.12 g/s with a grinding efficiency of 85%, while the average pelletizing rate using the same amount of input was 4.99 g/s with a pelletizing efficiency of 97.52%. The pellet produced had an average length and diameter of 20 mm and 5 mm, respectively. Whereas, the average percentage mass yield of each pellet after undergoing tests to determine the resistance against friability was 99%.

Keywords –sun dried bagasse, grinding rate, pelletizing rate, grinding efficiency, pelletizing efficiency