Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Davis, D. Jeremiah

Committee Member

Baldwin, S. Brian

Committee Member

Purswell, L. Joseph

Date of Degree

4-30-2011

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Engineering Technology

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Department

Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop a research platform using a John Deere 425 Hay Cuber and to evaluate inield densification of grass-based biomass for energy fuel sources. The hay cuber was repaired, modernized, and instrumented to provide a stable test platform on which to quantify and evaluate operating parameters. Bermudagrass was chosen as a model for cubing energy grasses such as Giant miscanthus and switchgrass. Lignin sulfonate binder was added to windrowed bermudagrass at 27.6 kg/tonne (50 lbs/ton) to increase the lignin content to that of energy grasses. The material output from the cuber was collected and separated into cubes and fines to evaluate the effectiveness of densification operations. Bermudagrass treated with binder produced significant regressions that accounted for 83% of variation in production parameters.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/15131

Comments

Switchgrass||Miscanthus||Biomass||Binder||Hay Cuber||Densification||Cubing

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