FLAT DIE MODIFICATION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A RETROFITTED FORTIFIED ORGANIC FERTILIZER PELLETING MACHINE
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Date
2019
Authors
ELIZALDE I. ESCAT II
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Abstract
This study was conducted to produce quality fortified organic fertilizer pellets by modifying the die of the machine and altering the application of the microbe inoculant for the benefit of Filipino farmers who seek to improve the quality of ogranic farming. The specific objective of this study was to: modify the die of the organic fertilizer pelleting machine; compare the performance of the original and modified machine and pellet quality in terms of pelleting capacity, pellet density, and pellet efficiency; evaluate the change of microbial count by introduction of inoculant before and after pelleting; and perform cost analysis.
Based on the results of the study, the modified die has a higher pelleting capacity than the die from the previous study, with the mean values of 80.03 and 65.27kg/hr, respectively. On the other hand, the efficiency of pellets produced was higher in the previous die than the modified die with mean values of 95.50 and 85.49%, respectively. For the pellet density, the modified die produced the higher density pellets at mean of 758.36kg/m³ and the volume reduced was 25% of its original volume.
The results on the evaluation of microbes present in the pellets showed it is highly effective to apply inoculant after pelleting. The bacterial colony count of the substrate before pelleting was averaged at 14.23 million cfu per gram of samples. The highest bacterial colony count was at Treatment A2B2 with 323 million cfu/g of sample. And the lowest was at Treatment A2B1 with only 154.67 milliom cfu/g of sample.
Based on the computation of sample cost analysis the cost of pelleting 1.33Phpkg with the custom rate of 2.00Php/kg the breakeven point is at 19441.42kg/yr. The computed net income and payback period id 42896.08Php/yr and 2.5 years, respectively.