Influence of feed moisture and hammer mill operating factors on bagasse particle size distributions

Abstract

Physical properties of ground bagasse could be important for processes such as densification. Bagasse chops into 20–25 cm slice at three moisture content 8, 12 and 16% (wb) were ground using a hammer mill (0.5 hp) with three screen sizes of 1, 2.5 and 4 mm at two hammer mill speeds 1400 and 2000 rpm. Physical properties of grinds such as geometric mean diameter of grind particles, particle size distribution were determined. The highest specific energy consumption was 750 KjKg^-1 for the sample that has highest moisture content, using smallest screen size and at 2000 rpm hammer mill speed. And least specific energy consumption was 11 Kj­Kg^-1for the sample that has least moisture content, using largest screen size (4 mm) and at 1400 rpm speed. Four distributions were examined. For 1, 2.5 and 4 mm screen sizes normal, Generalized Extreme Value and log-normal distribution has best performance, respectively.