Effects of moisture content and blade cutting speed on the chopping and size distribution of sugarcane leaves for the production of fuel biomass

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of moisture content and blade cutting speed on the chopping and size distribution of sugarcane leaves. The experiments were conducted using 4 different moisture content percentages of 19.74, 30.97, 44.52 and 50.12 % w.b. and at the blade cutting speeds of 380, 630 and 880 rpm. The results revealed that moisture content and blade cutting speed significantly affected working capacity, weight and geometric mean particle length of the sugarcane leaves, and the results were statistically significant with confidence levels of 95%. The interaction of the two factors had a significant effect on the working capacity but did not affect the percent weight and geometric mean particle length of the sugarcane leaves. Working capacity, percent weight and geometric mean particle length all decreased when the cutting speed was increased and the moisture content decreased. This resulted in an increase in the distribution of “small size” leaves. At the blade cutting speed of 880 rpm and moisture content of 19.74 % w.b., the percent weight was 98.54% and geometric mean particle length was 9.18 mm. Size distribution of leaves {(<10) (10-20) (20-30)} mm in length had a total size distribution of 86.67%. The distribution of particles less than 10 mm in length was the highest at 48.57%, followed by the distribution of particles 10-20 mm and 20-30 mm in length, recorded at 24.52 and 13.57 %, respectively