MANUFACTURE AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A LOCAL UNIT FOR PRODUCING COMPOST TEA

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Lecturer of Agric. Eng., Fac. of Agric., Zagazig Univ. Egypt.

Abstract

Experiments were carried out to manufacture and evaluate the performance of a local unit for producing compost tea. The performance of the manufactured unit was studied as a function of change in material dilution percentage, temperature degree, air pressure and fermentation period. Performance evaluation of the manufactured unit was carried out in terms of extraction efficiency, unit productivity, required power, specific energy and operational cost.
The experimental results reveal that that the highest values of unit productivity and extraction efficiency were (1.64 l/h and 95.33%), while the lowest values of specific energy and operational cost were (0.26 kw.h/l and 2.29 L.E./l) respectively under the following conditions:

§ The use of the manufactured unit for producing compost tea.
§ Operate the manufactured unit at a temperature degree of about 25º C.
§ Adjust the air pressure at 1.5 kg/cm2.
§ Operate the manufactured unit at a fermentation period of about 24 h.
§ Adjust the dilution percentage at about 1:10.

Main Subjects


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