Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

I’ve tried to find the most effective and cost effective way to harvest straw for energy recovery.

You can choose between round bales and big square bales. Square bales are the cheapest way to produce straw for fuel recovery because you can optimize the length of the bales so they fit the transportation equipment.

In the Malmö area the average days of harvesting hay is 55. The effectively of transportation depends mostly of the speed, the distance and density of the bales. To increase the capacity of bale transportation larger loads and higher density of the bales is necessary. The traffic rules
limit the size of the transportation vehicles. Straw is fully storable with a humidity of 18 % but the most straw power plants accepts a humidity of 20 %. The most contract hay harvesting company’s stops baling at a humidity of 19 %.

The storage of the bales is first on the field and later on a bigger storage area. There are plenty of systems to choose between when collecting bales from the field to the storage area. The cheapest way for collecting bales from field to the storage area on the field is with a tractor
and an automatic bale collector. The system is cheapest because there is only one man required for collecting and stacking. No Wheel loader is nesessary in this system.

Handle the straw are expensive. Each time you move a bale the bale-cost rise. It’s important have an effective handling of the bales and reduces the number of times the bales will be removed to lover the cost of bale handling.

The wheel loader gets more effective if it’s equipped with a bale squeeze then a bale spear during truck loading. If the baler is equipped with a bale collector you save a lot of time during bale handling, you don’t need to collect the bales with a wheel loader on the whole field because the bales are automatically collected on the field’s turning point.

Conclusions:
• Big square bales are the cheapest and the best way to produce hay bales.
• Tractor and automatic bale collector are the most economic way to collect a big number of round bales and square bales.
• To increase the capacity of bale transportation larger loads and higher density of the bales is necessary.
• Balers equipped with cutting section are more expensive than regular balers even when it’s used more hours per year