Chicken manure compost: How to increase its value?

Chicken manure compost: How to increase its value?

With the rapid development of animal husbandry these years, the proportion of its output value in agriculture is rising. However, the subsequent disposal of manure is a big problem. Some chicken farms have even been shut down due to fecal contamination problem. It is reported that China’s domestic livestock manure emissions reached as much as 3 billion tons only in 2013. And there has been an increase these years. The treatment of livestock manure has attracted much attention in recent years. And many countries have taken effective measures to intervene and restrict.

Generally speaking, there are mainly three ways to deal with the chicken manure at present, fermented into feed, biogas, and composting.

Compost made from chicken manure is an effective material for improving the physical and chemical condition of soil. However, there are Four factors that limit the application of ordinary composted chicken manure.

1. High moisture content.

The moisture content of compost that after full fermentation is roughly 30-40%.

2. The product is weighty and bulky, making it expensive and difficult to transport.

A large storage space is also needed.

3. Not easily spread by machine.

Many of the spreaders currently on the market are designed for granular fertilizers to achieve high quality, large area and efficient operation, and a special machine is needed for spreading the compost. If not use spreader, it takes much time and strength to apply the compost.

4. The quality of the compost and its nutrient content are not constant.

Data shows that the fresh chicken manure contains 50.5% water, 25.6% organic matters, 1.63% N, 1.55% P2O5, 0.82% K2O, and some nutrients will be lost during the fermentation process. So, the nutrient value of compost is low compared with that of chemical fertilizers, and the rate of nutrient release is slow so that it cannot usually meet the nutrient requirement of crops in a short time, thus resulting in some nutrient deficiency. Another, The nutrient composition of compost is highly variable compared to chemical fertilizers. This also limits the efficient use of compost. 

So how to solve these problems? Transforming the composted chicken manure into granules is an effective solution to these problems.

The price of ordinary chicken manure compost is roughly USD 40-70 per ton, while the price of chicken manure organic fertilizer granules is roughly USD 150-300 per ton. The granulation process greatly enhance the value of compost.

organic fertilizer granules

In comparison to traditional compost, the granulation process creates the following 6 advantages,

1. Suitable for mechanized spreading & precision agriculture.

The compost granules are comparatively uniform in size and quality. They can be applied by various kinds of machinery which crop farms already possess. They are strong enough to be applied by machine without disintegrating. 

2. Reduced material volume, decreasing the overall storage space required. 

It has a volume only 60-90% of the raw compost, requiring less storage space during the off season.

3. Suitable Form for Long-Distance Transport.

The dried granules retain their form during storage and distribution. Able to transport Granules easily and farther than typical manure transportation limitations allow.

4. Consistent quality and nutrient quality among granules.

Additives can be included in the process to create custom products and fertilizer blends, allowing the product to be tailored to specific soil needs and nutrient management programs, or to be sold as a premium product.

5. Reduced quantity of dust and dust-related issues.

When the granules are scattered, they produce only one-tenth or less of the dust generated by ordinary compost.

6. Improved physical and chemical conditions in fields where granules are applied. Specifically, organic granules help a soil retain nutrients, reduce erosion and nutrient run-off, and create a healthy soil for plant growth.

How to make compost into organic fertilizer granules?

Ring die organic fertilizer Granulator machine is used to make chicken manure compost into ball shape granules or cylindrical pellets.

Ring die granulator machine

The entire ring die granulator includes two parts, Pellets part and Balling part (Polishing machine). The pellets part turn chicken manure compost that fed into the granulator into cylindrical pellets, and the cylindrical pellets are polished to spherical granules by the balling part. So both round ball granules and cylindrical pellets could be produced by the Ring die system granulation machine.

The detailed working process as below,

The raw material goes into working chamber and fall on the ‘dump tray’, then thrown into the ring die by centrifugal effect. The ring die and rollers system turning drive by reduction gears & transmission which energy from motor. The pressure come from ring die and rollers system running, cylinder form are forced extrusion from ring die hole which cut into small pellets as required by cutting line.

The cylinder form pellets fall onto the disk in the polishing drum, and thrown onto the wall of drum with circumferential movement by high-speed rotating disk, the granules in a circular motion at the same time also in radial rotation motion due to centrifugal effect . Mutual friction make the granules with edges and corners into balls gradually due to granules’ moving . At the same time, ball shape granules gradually floating on the top, final granules overflow along with quantity of granules increased in the drum .

working principle of ring die granulator

Chicken manure organic fertilizer granules should be a high-grade product with several desirable qualities. For example, they should be able to maintain their shape when being transported to distant areas, easily spread by machine, not deteriorate during prolonged storage.

The quality of the granules is determined by the character of the compost which is the raw material, by the granulator machine, and by moisture management during the granulation process. The production of compost granules should be seen as a system which begins with the making of the compost, and ends with the packaged granules. It is necessary to understand how to manage the compost as a raw material, in order to produce the best possible granules.

1. Moisture Content of the Compost

The moisture content of the compost is the most important factor. This greatly influences the strength and the processing speed of the granules. The best moisture content is about 30-35%.

2. Composition of compost

It is also important to use compost which does not contain metal debris or stones. These damage the machines, and repairs and replacements add to the production cost. Granules must be suitable for use as a high-quality organic fertilizer, because it costs money and time to produce the granules. The compost should have a stable and assured nutrient content without seasonal fluctuations, and contain a high level of nutrients.

3. Particle size of compost: 

Large particles need to be removed or ground prior to granulation process. Because if the particle size is too large, the surface of final granules will not be smooth, and the quantity of granules is not good enough. The best particle size is less than 0.5 mm.

The Granulator machine is the core part to make organic fertilizer granules. There are some other kinds of machines are used to assist the granulation process to improve the effect of granules, such as Crusher, Mixer, Screening/Grading machine, Dryer, Cooling machine, Belt conveyor and Weighing & Packaging machine. These machines make up the organic fertilizer granules production line.

 

organic fertilizer granules production line

The applications of the machines in the production line are as below,

1）Crusher: Produce finer material to be granulated.

The crusher can be used in two process.

Firstly, if the compost is too coarse, it should be grounded by crusher machine in advance to make it finer for the granulating process. This process is not needed when the compost material is fine enough.

Secondly, after mixing the compost with additives, it is better to crush the mixture again to make it suitable for granulation.

There are mainly two kinds of semi-wet crusher, Horizontal type and Vertical type.

2）Mixer: Mix chicken manure compost and additives evenly.

As previously mentioned, the chicken manure compost has limit nutrients, so some other nutrients and additives need to be added to make high level nutrients organic fertilizer to meet the market..

The mixer machine is used to mix all the materials and additives evenly.

3）Screening/Grading machine:

Separate the granules from the large or small particles which need to be returned for the second crushing and granulating.

It is used for separating the returned materials and the finished products. The returned materials will go back to fertilizer crusher for further process, while the finished products are conveyed to fertilizer coating machine, or directly transported to automatic fertilizer packager.

If chicken manure compost has metal debris or stones, the screening machine also can be used to remove these impurity to make high-quality organic fertilizer, avoiding damaging machines.

4）Dryer: Remove moisture further in the granulated particles so as to meet the requirements of organic fertilizer moisture content.

Compost granules become moldy if they are packed and stored without drying.  Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the moisture content of the granules to 20%. During the summer, it is necessary to reduce the moisture content to 15% or less, because deterioration by condensation is caused even at a 20% moisture content.

The moisture content of raw materials fed into granulator is 30-35 %, and it reduces about 3-5% during the granulation process, so the final moisture is still more than 25% after granulation process. Dryer machine is used to dry the granules.

Another situation, if the moisture content of chicken manure compost is more than 35% before granulating process, it should be dried in advance by the rotary drum drying machine to reduce the moisture content.

5）Cooling machine: Cool granules to normal temperature as well as make fertilizer particles stronger.

Rotary drum cooler is used for cooling fertilizer granules with certain temperature and particle size in fertilizer industry.

Rotary Drum Cooler adopts heating exchange method to cool materials. It is equipped with welded steel spiral scraping wings in front of the tube, lifting board at the end of the rotary body, and auxiliary piping system in the feed end of the cooling machine. The belt and pulley are driven by the main motor and through the reducer the drive shaft is put in motion.

It has been an essential and indispensable part in the whole fertilizer processing. It consists of drum body, spiral plate, lifting board, hopper,cyclone dust catcher and cooling pipe system. The rotary cooler machine can combine with the rotary drum dryer to remove the dust and clean the exhaust together, which can improve the cooling efficiency and the rate of thermal energy utilization, reduce labor intensity, and further remove moisture of the fertilizer. Generally, the inlet temperature of materials is 60°-80°, while the outlet temperature is less than 30°.

6）Belt conveyor: Connect the whole system

Belt conveyor is the necessary for the fertilizer production line. It is used to connect machines with each other. Belt conveyor can convey powder and granules, but there is one condition, the temperature of materials that are conveyed should be below 60℃.

The conveyor is a high-efficiency and easy-operation material transporting machine. The organic & compound fertilizer conveyor can convey not only detrital materials, such as fertilizer, pellets etc., but also packed products. Belt conveyor is widely used in fertilizer, metallurgy, coal, transportation, water and electricity, and chemical industry etc. In the whole organic or organic & compound fertilizer production line, the high-efficiency fertilizer conveyor conveys the material from the original material feeding point to the final packaging point, which realizes the continuously uninterrupted transport and ensures the normal operation of the whole line. This organic & compound fertilizer machine saves the labor and energy, being the optimal transport equipment.

7）Weighing & Packaging machine: Weigh and then put the granules into bags

The finished products enter into the packing machine through the belt conveyor, and then weighed and packed quantitatively and automatically.

This article describes the usual treatment of chicken manure, the disadvantage of composting, the advantages of granulation, how to make organic fertilizer granules to increase the value of chicken manure, the condition of the compost that to be made into high-quality granules, and the complete organic fertilizer granules production line. If you are interested in it or have any questions, please contact me. Let’s discuss about it.

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Email: amylee516@outlook.com

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