INCREASING OF THE PARTICLE SIZE OF CHOPPED ARUNDO FOR A BETTER STORAGE

摘要

Giant reed (Arundo donax L.) is currently harvested using the common self-propelled forage harvestersrn(SPFH). Often the product presents a distribution skewed towards the finer particles that can negatively influence thernqualitative traits of the fuel and the efficiency of power plants. The Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’AnalisirnEconomica-Unità di Ingegneria Agraria, in collaboration with Spapperi Ltd, has designed and developed a prototypernfor cutting and sectioning the Arundo plants in order to produce a higher proportion of chips longer than the onesrnobtainable from a forage harvester. A study has been conducted to compare the characteristics of the product obtainedrnfrom the prototype or from a SPFH. The percentage of the finest particle was statistically reduced in the prototype’srnproduct. At the same time, the fraction ranging from 6.3 to 12.5 mm arose of about five- to ten-fold. The first resultsrnshow that the lengthening of the particle size is attainable.