Livestock manure management and pelleting

Densification of livestock manure, such as pelleting, can increase bulk density, improve storability, reduce transportation costs, and make these materials easier to handle using existing handling and storage equipment for grains.  Determination of physical and rheological properties of composted manure is necessary to obtain the parameters related to designing and constructing a suitable pelleting machine for producing compost pellets.  The objectives of this research were to study the physical properties, friction characteristics, and shearing behavior of composted cattle manure.  The following properties, particle size distribution, bulk density, angle of repose, friction coefficient and shear strength were investigated, and the effects of moisture content (20%, 30%, 40%, 50% and 60%) and particle size (0.3, 0.6, 1.18 and 2 mm) on  these properties were studied.  The results show that the moisture content and particle size are critical parameters to design pelleting machine. It was found that the effects of moisture content and particle size on all measured parameters were significant. Keywords: livestock manure, densification, pelleting, physical properties, moisture content, particle size &nbsp