GB2269131A

GB2269131A - Straw compactor

Info

Publication number: GB2269131A
Application number: GB9215946A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Peter Leslie Clifton
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1992-07-27
Filing date: 1992-07-27
Publication date: 1994-02-02
Anticipated expiration: 2012-07-27
Also published as: GB9215946D0; GB2269131B

Abstract

To compact bio-mass to make a dense solid (without the use of additional resins or adhesives), a rotating screw impeller compresses the feed material and heats it by sliding friction. After some cooling, the product becomes completely solid, with a density in excess of 1000kg/cubic metre. The compactor may be driven by the power take-off shaft of a standard tractor. <IMAGE>

Description

"A METHOD OF COMPACTING STRAW (AND OTHER BIO-MASS) TO MAKE FUEL" DescriDtion My straw compactor makes use of a specially adapted rotary compressor, driven by the power-take-off shaft of a standard tractor.

Chopped straw (or sawdust, chaff, etc.) is fed continuously from a feed hopper. The straw becomes heated (by friction from the rotary motion) and highly compressed, and is then extruded as a dense solid from the exit nozzle, and breaks off into logs about six inches long, which drop into a collecting box, or on to a bagging machine for commercial fuel distribution.

Claims

Claims There are two other machines to my

knowledge that compress straw to make fuel.

The first is very large, static, and extremely expensive. A linear ram compresses the straw into a tapered nozzle, and the friction in passing through this nozzle generates heat. The problem with this method of generating heat is that in ormer to raise the temperature sufficiently, the pressures required have to be enormous, and the machine becomes heavy and expensive. My method of heating, by using sliding friction via a rotating impeller, enables lower pressures to be used, so that the machinery is much lighter and cheaper, and can easily be mounted behind a small tractor. The second machine is very large, heavy (ten tonnes) and expensive, and compresses the straw into briquettes of only medium density, using cupped indentations in contra-rotating cylinders. Very little additional heat is applied in this process, resulting in briquettes of only medium density. My machine is much lighter, and produces a much higher density product.