JP3494697B2 - Method for producing granular peat moss - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for producing granular peat moss which can be suitably used for horticultural soil.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Peat moss is peat moss that has been humified and deposited on a wetland with a high water table while leaving the original plant tissue. Depending on the type of the original plant, peat moss can be converted into woody peat and fibrous peat. being classified. Since peat moss has advantages such as excellent water retention, air permeability and fertilizer retention, aseptic condition, slow decomposition rate, and almost no fertilizer component, it is a vegetable. And paddy rice nursery beds, flowers,
It is widely used as a material for cultivating soil such as grass and is now indispensable.

On the other hand, peat moss has a low pH (generally pH = 3.5 to 5.5) and therefore requires correction of acidity, and once dried, it is difficult to absorb water, and because of its fibrous nature. It has the disadvantages that it has a very low bulk specific gravity and is difficult to mix with other horticultural soil, and that it has poor drainage.

Various measures have been taken to improve these disadvantages. Granulation of peat moss has been tried as one of them, but it does not always satisfy consumers. The cause is that peat moss is fibrous and cotton-like, and thus it is difficult to granulate by a usual granulation method, and a great manufacturing cost is required to manufacture a product having a uniform particle size. In addition, there is a problem that even if the particles are granulated, the particles will collapse when wet with water.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to efficiently produce granular peat moss that is hard to disintegrate while maintaining the original advantages of peat moss, such as water retention, fertilization and air permeability.

[0006]

The present invention provides a method for producing granular peat moss, which comprises mixing bentonite as a binder and industrial water generating soil into peat moss and granulating the mixture with a roll type extrusion granulator or a gear type extrusion granulator. provide.

The roll-type extrusion granulator is a machine for obtaining a cylindrical granulation product by pressing a granulation product with a roll 1 and extruding it from a die 2 as shown in FIG. is there. Although FIG. 1 shows a roll-type extrusion granulator that uses a disc-shaped die, one that uses a cylindrical die can be used as well. In the case of a cylindrical die, the die may be placed vertically or horizontally.

Since peat moss is a fibrous substance which is rich in elasticity and contains a large amount of air, granules such as a rotary cylinder type granulator, a plate type granulator and a pressure pen type granulator can be used as granular peat moss. Can't get A screw-type extrusion granulator that structurally has a compression deaeration function can granulate peat moss when finely crushed, but crushing peat moss not only lowers water retention but also makes peat moss more efficient. It requires a large-scale device to crush it, which is expensive.

Since the roll-type extrusion granulator has both a shearing function and a compression degassing function, even peat moss which has not been crushed can be easily granulated, and granular peat moss having a uniform particle size can be obtained with high efficiency. be able to. Further, the grain size can be easily controlled by changing the diameter of the die / screen.

In the production method of the present invention, a gear type extrusion granulator can also be adopted. Gear type extrusion granulator
As shown in FIG. 2 as one example thereof, a granulated product is supplied to a gear roll 3 which is intermeshed with each other, and a granulated product extruded from a small hole formed in a tooth bottom is cut by a knife cutter 4. Is. It is similar to the roll-type extrusion granulator in that it has both a shearing function and a compression deaeration function, and can granulate peat moss. Hereinafter, the case of using the roll type extrusion granulator will be described, but the same applies to the case of using the gear type extrusion granulator.

For peat moss, it is necessary to add a binder for granulation. The binder is a substance that enhances the plasticity and the caking property during peat moss granulation, improves the handleability during mixing, and increases the strength of the granular material. When no binder is used, granular peat moss can be obtained, but its strength is not sufficient, and it is unsuitable because it easily powders or disintegrates in water.

Specific examples of the binder include clay minerals such as bentonite, kaolin, clay, zeolite, and sepiolite, or organic polymers such as thermosetting polyvinyl acetate, lignin sulfonate, industrial waste soil and sewage sludge. Can be used, but bentonite and industrial water generation
Preference is given to using soil . The amount of binder added is
It is preferably 5 to 30% by weight with respect to peat moss.

When not only a binder but also a water repellent agent is added to the peat moss, the hydrophilicity of the granular peat moss in the dry state is increased, and, for example, the granular peat moss float on the water during irrigation and run off together with the water. This is preferable because it can be prevented. As the water repellent, a nonionic surfactant or an ionic surfactant can be used,
When it is used as a soil, it preferably does not inhibit the growth of plants.

Specific examples of the water-repellent agent include polyoxyethylene alkyl ethers, polyoxyethylene alkylphenyl ethers, esters of polyoxyethylene glycol and fatty acid, and higher alcohol sulfates. The nonionic one is preferable because it is not necessary to consider the pH of the irrigation water. The amount of the water repellent agent added is 0.05 to 1.0% by weight with respect to the peat moss.
Is preferred.

When an acidity-correcting material is added to granular peat moss, it is possible to prevent plant damage caused by the acid of peat moss. The pH after correction varies depending on the application but is generally preferably 5 to 7. As the acidity correcting material, slaked lime, quick lime, magnesia lime, calcium carbonate and the like can be used. Slaked lime is preferable in terms of handling and effect. The addition amount is adjusted depending on the pH of the raw material peat moss and the target crop.

When a mineral having a high specific gravity is added to the granular peat moss, the bulk specific gravity of the granular peat moss can be increased to prevent floating or runoff of the granular peat moss,
It can facilitate mixing with other materials. Perlite, barite, iron oxide, etc. can be used as such minerals. The amount added is 0.1 to peat moss.
5% by weight is preferred.

[0017] By using as a part of the particulate peat moss binder industrial water waste soil, but industrial water waste soil only functions as a binder, also acts as acidity corrective material to indicate proper basicity , Also functions as a bulk density increasing material. For this reason, other additive components are unnecessary or the amount used can be reduced. Here, industrial water generated soil is obtained by coagulating and filtering suspended solids in raw water for industrial use, and then dried, and mainly consists of a mixture of clay and organic matter.
Is around 8.

[0018] Similar to the industrial water waste soil, sewage sludge can be used as a part of the binder in the granular peat moss.

When chitosan is added to granular peat moss, the antibacterial action and the plant growth promoting action of chitosan are exhibited, so that it exhibits a particularly excellent effect in applications such as cultivating soil. Chitosan is a substance obtained by further deacetylating chitin obtained from the shells of crustaceans and the like, and its chemical name is β- (1,
4) -poly-2-amido-2-deoxy-D-glucan. In the present invention, chitosan may be not only chitin completely deacetylated but also chitosan having a low degree of deacetylation (saponification degree). Saponification degree is 70
% Or more is preferable. The addition amount of chitosan is preferably 0.1 to 20% by weight with respect to peat moss.

In addition to these additives, pesticides and fertilizers can be added to the granular peat moss of the present invention depending on the application.

Specifically, the manufacturing method of the present invention is preferably carried out by the manufacturing process as shown in FIG. First,
Mix the peat moss, binder and optionally other additives and store this mixture in the hopper. And it granulates with a roll type extrusion granulator, and obtains granular peat moss.
Since an extrusion granulator can obtain a cylindrical granular material, it is preferable when performing a sizing operation thereafter, because the fluidity of granular peat moss is improved. It is also possible to add an additive such as a water repellent agent in the sizing step. Preferably,
After sizing, the product is further dried and sieved to obtain a product. The material that has passed through the sieve can be returned to the mixture hopper and used again.

[0022]

Example Reference Example 1 To 2000 g of woody peat moss (water content 49.5%, pH 4.4, bulk specific gravity 0.22), 300 g of bentonite was added as a binder, and 100 g of barite and 1 of slaked lime were added.
2 g, 100 g of a 10 wt% aqueous solution of an anionic surfactant (manufactured by Daiichi Kogyo Seiyaku Co., Ltd., trade name Neocor) were added, and a kneader (manufactured by Fuji Paudal Co., Ltd., KDH-2) was added.
(Type 0) and kneaded for 3 minutes. This kneaded product was granulated into a cylindrical shape using a roll-type extrusion granulator (PV-5 type manufactured by Fuji Paudal Co., Ltd.) having a screen hole diameter of 0.9 mm. 4 liters of this granulated product was used as a spherical sizing machine (manufactured by Fuji Paudal Co., Ltd., Q-400 type, rotation speed 380 rpm).
After sieving the particles by using, the mixture was placed in a constant temperature dryer at 110 ° C. and dried so that the residual water content was 30% by weight. As a result,
A granular peat moss was obtained.

Reference Example 2 A granular peat moss was produced in the same manner as in Reference Example 1, except that the screen hole diameter of the roll type extrusion granulator was 5 mm.

Reference Example 3 A granular peat moss was produced in the same manner as in Reference Example 1 except that the screen hole diameter of the roll type extruder was 8 mm.

Example 1 Woody peat moss (water content: 52%,
pH 4.6, bulk specific gravity 0.32) 1600 g, industrial water generated soil (water 27.6%, pH 8.0, bulk specific gravity 0.94) 67
0 g, 170 g of bentonite were added, 110 g of a 10 wt% aqueous solution of an anionic surfactant (manufactured by Dai-ichi Kogyo Seiyaku Co., Ltd., Neocor) was added, and a kneader (KDH-20 type manufactured by Fuji Paudal Co., Ltd.) was added. And kneaded for 3 minutes. In the same manner as in Reference Example 1 below, granular peat moss was obtained.

With respect to the granular peat moss obtained in Reference Examples 1 to 3 and Example 1 , pH, bulk specific gravity, hardness, pulverization rate, disintegration rate in water, floating rate, and water retention rate were evaluated by the following methods. The results are shown in Table 1.

PH: 25 ml of water was added to 10 g of the sample,
Shake and let stand for 30 minutes or more. Before measurement, the glass electrode of the pH meter was dipped in a liquid that was stirred gently to make it into a suspended state, and after about 30 seconds, the pH indicated value was read.

Bulk specific gravity: internal volume of 500 ml (inner diameter 71 m
The bottomed cylindrical container of m) was lightly filled with the sample, tapped gently on the desk three times, and the sample was replenished, and the upper surface was horizontally scraped with a spatula to remove the excess sample. The weight of the sample in the container at this time was divided by the internal volume of the container to obtain the bulk specific gravity.

Hardness: The particles are pressed using a Kiya type hardness tester,
The weight when the particles broke was measured. Diameter 2 for pressurization
A cylinder of mm was used. The measurement was performed on 20 particles, and the average thereof was defined as the hardness. However, in Reference Example 1, since the particles were small, the hardness could not be evaluated by this method.

Powdering rate: Ball mill (porcelain pot: inner diameter 1
(00 mm, depth 100 mm), granular peat moss 100
g and 3 porcelain balls (diameter about 30 mm, weight about 35 g) were put therein, and after rotating at 75 rpm for 15 minutes, the sample was taken out from the porcelain pot and sieved using a standard sieve. The value of the weight passed through with respect to the original weight (100 g) is expressed as a percentage. The openings of the standard sieve used were 0.5 mm, 2.8 mm, 5.6 mm and 0.5 mm in Reference Examples 1, 2, 3 and Example 1 , respectively.

Disintegration rate in water: 100 peat moss granules randomly sampled were placed in a vat so that the particles did not come into contact with each other, and water was added to such a degree that the particles were just immersed in the vat and left for 24 hours. After that, the vat and the dryer (50
(° C) and dried for 24 hours, and then dried to the state. Repeat the operation of filling with water and drying 10 times,
The percentage of grains that kept their original shape was determined.

Floating rate: About 2 g of granular peat moss was gently charged into a beaker filled with water and having a volume of 300 ml, and after standing for 5 minutes, the number of particles floating on the surface without settling was counted and the ratio was determined. .

Water retention rate: 20 g of dried granular peat moss was placed in a beaker having a volume of 300 ml filled with water, allowed to stand for 24 hours, transferred to a net and drained for 1 minute to obtain a weight increase rate. did.

Comparative Examples 1 to 3 Granular peat moss was produced in the same manner as in Examples except that bentonite was excluded from the raw material mixtures of Reference Examples 1 to 3. The evaluation results are shown in Table 1.

[0035]

[Table 1]

Example 2 1600 g of woody peat moss (water content 52%, pH 4.6, bulk specific gravity 0.32) was added to industrial water generation soil (water content 27.6%,
pH 8.0, bulk specific gravity 0.94) 670 g, bentonite 170 g, and chitosan 80 g were added, and 1 of anionic surfactant (Daiichi Kogyo Seiyaku Co., Ltd., trade name Neocor) was added.
110 g of a 0 wt% aqueous solution was added, and the mixture was charged into a kneader (KDH-20 type, manufactured by Fuji Paudal Co., Ltd.) and kneaded for 3 minutes. In the same manner as in Reference Example 1 below, granular peat moss was obtained.

40 g of the chemical fertilizer was applied to 5 liters of the soil in which the granular peat moss and the volcanic ash soil were mixed in a one-to-one manner, and the cucumber was sown. When the incidence of Fusarium wilt was investigated 30 days after sowing, the group in which the above-mentioned granular peat moss was mixed showed that
The incidence rate of Fusarium wilt was 42% lower than that of the non-addition group.

[0038]

Industrial Applicability According to the production method of the present invention, various disadvantages of peat moss can be improved, and it is possible to efficiently produce a non-disintegrating granular peat moss which is excellent in handleability such as easy mixing. Granular peat moss obtained by this method, can be suitably used for soil, etc. applications horticultural.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a main part of a roll-type extrusion granulator.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a main part of a gear type extrusion granulator.

FIG. 3 is a process chart of the manufacturing method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: roll 2: Die 3: Gear roll 4: Knife cutter

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Nei Kawamata 10 Goi Kaigan, Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture Japan Joint Fertilizer Co., Ltd.Chiba factory (72) Inventor Yasuhiro Yamashita 10 Goi Kaigan, Chiba Prefecture Japan Joint Fertilizer Co., Ltd. Chiba Factory (72) Inventor Koichi Udagawa 10 Goi Kaigan, Ichihara City, Chiba Japan Joint Fertilizer Co., Ltd. Chiba Factory (56) References JP-A-2-222620 (JP, A) JP-A-59-232700 (JP) , A) JP 4-169127 (JP, A) JP 1-141525 (JP, A) JP 61-11663 (JP, B2) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB) Name) A01G 1/00 303 B01J 2/20

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. Bentonai as a binder for peat moss
A method for producing granular peat moss, which comprises mixing the soil and the generated soil with industrial water and granulating the mixture with a roll-type extrusion granulator or a gear-type extrusion granulator. 2. The method for producing granular peat moss according to claim 1, wherein a granulating step is provided after granulation. 3. Peat moss, pesticide, fertilizer, acidity corrector,
The method for producing granular peat moss according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein one or more kinds selected from the group consisting of a bulk specific gravity increasing material and a water repellent agent is added. 4. The method for producing granular peat moss according to claim 1, 2 or 3 , wherein chitosan is added to the peat moss.