08.08.2015   BIOMASS NOW - CULTIVATION AND UTILIZATION

Bale compression

To reduce long distance hauling cost of forage/hay bales, compression of these bales into ultra-dense bales was adopted by some producers to prepare the hay for overseas transport.

Commercial bale compression equipment has potential to be used for the densification of baled biomass.

Field operation

Number of bales per hour (St. dev.)

Raking

85 (equivalent)

Baling

43 (9)

Accumulating into stacks of bales in field

93 (28)

Loading truck in field from accumulated bales

204 (29)

Loading truck in field from not first accumulated bales

143 (46)

Stacking bales in storage

93 (12)

Table 1. Field capacities of large rectangular baler and bale handlers (Straw M. C., 14% w. b.) [14].

Ten large rectangular switchgrass bales were compressed using the compressor (Figure 4)

[9] . The input bale had a dimension of 0.86×1.22×2.21m, and the resulting compressed bales were 0.53×0.46×0.38m. When stacked in groups of 20 per pallet, the package had a dimension of 1.02×1.17×1.70m. The initial bales had a volume of 23.27m3. When accounting for a 7.0% loss of material and water, this volume was 21.67m3. The bales had average moisture of 14% (w. b.) at the time of compression. The compressed package had a volume of 13.13m3, a reduction of 60.6% in volume.

image46

Figure 4. Commercial large rectangular bale slicer/compressor.