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Renewable Energy: Unusual Test Work
Multotec received an enquiry to separate sand, earth and debris from cow manure. The clean manure is fed as fuel to a biogas plant to generate electricity.
Sample receipt
Approximately 240 kg manure was made available for test work purposes. The sample was sun dried and approximately 3 mm was screened off to remove the coarse oversize.
Cyclone simulation
A single hydrocyclone with an internal diameter of 165 mm was selected. The hydrocyclone was configured with an 8 ° cone, a 64 mm ID vortex finder and 30 mm spigot. A vertical installation was tested.
The cyclone overflow and underflow was collected. The underflow was checked to contain the sand and debris while the overflow should only consists out of water and manure.
Sample preparation
The overflow and underflow samples were dried in an oven at 50 °C. (This was the only smelly part about the test work). The dried overflow became extremely hard and it was difficult to de-agglomerate the sample.
Results
Pictures of the overflow and underflow were taken under the microscope at 32 times enlargement.
It is clear that the cyclone managed to separate the manure from the earth, sand and debris.
Figure 1: Cyclone Overflow
Figure 2: Cyclone Underflow
Client
The client was happy with the separation based on the microscope pictures. The laboratory indicated that they never had done any chemical analysis on manure, but will be able to analyse the silicon content of the sand and earth. From a literature study it was found that separating manure from sand on a dairy farm is the way to sustainable energy.
The test work gave Multotec the opportunity to find a solution for the client and also presented an opportunity to enter the market of agricultural hydrocyclones.