CONTINUOUS ROUND BALER

Research Progress Report of the Continuous Round Baler

To:Mark Core, Agricultural Division Department Head

From:Andrew R. Becker, Kansas State University Mechanical Engineering Senior

CC:Bob Vermeer, Owner; Phil Egging, Head Agricultural Division Project Engineer

Date:4/30/2011

Re:Research Progress Report of the Continuous Round Baler

Dear Director:

I have completed my research report entitled as “Pursue of the Continuous Round Baler”. The purpose of this proposal is to request approval to evaluate the feasibility of designing a continuous round baler. The goal of this study is to present a document and illustrated report along with a design concept that can be used for the early stages of engineering. The report will explain the benefits of the round baler and help Vermeer determine if using engineering resources to develop this design would be a worthwhile investment.

I have found that the US Department of Energy has a goal to make ethanol from biomass cost competitive with petroleum by 2012. Feedstock procurement is expected to represent a significant portion of the operating costs for a refinery that produces ethanol from biomass such as switchgrass. Thus, cost-effective feedstock logistics will be a key factor for the future development of a capital intensive cellulosic ethanol industry. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the cost of various logistic methods of switchgrass production, harvesting, storing, and transportation.

I gathered most of my information from recent technical articles and conference proceedings. I also found several books and their results suggest that the preprocessing system outperformed the conventional bale harvest methods in the delivered costs of switchgrass.

Thank you for the opportunity to do this research and write this report for the Pursue of Continuous Round Baler. If you have questions or need any further assistance, please contact me by telephone.

Sincerely,

Andrew R. Becker,

Senior, Mechanical Engineering

Kansas State University



Table of Contents

1.Executive Summary10

2.Introduction11

3. Types of Dry Hay Harvesting12

3.1 Round Baling13

3.2 Square Baling14

4. Comparing Round Balers and Square Balers15

4.1 Harvest Window15

4.1.1 Round Balers15

4.1.2 Square Balers16

4.1.3 Continuous Round Balers17

4.2 Cost of Machine and Operation17

4.2.1 Round Balers18

4.2.2 Square Balers18

4.2.3 Continuous Round Balers18

4.3 Storage of Bale19

4.3.1 Round Balers19

4.3.2 Square Balers20

4.3.3 Continuous Round Balers20

4.4 Ease of Transportation21

4.4.1 Round Balers21

4.4.2 Square Balers22

4.4.3 Continuous Round Balers22

4.5 Hay Quality23

4.5.1 Round Balers23

4.5.2 Square Balers23

4.5.3 Continuous Round Balers24

4.6 New Markets24

4.6.1 Commercial Haying24

4.6.1.1 Round Balers24

4.6.1.2 Square Balers25

4.6.1.3 Continuous Round Balers25

4.6.2 Cotton Industry25

4.6.2.1 Round Balers26

4.6.2.2 Square Balers26

4.6.2.3 Continuous Round Balers26

4.6.3 Biomass26

4.6.3.1 Round Balers27

4.6.3.2 Square Balers27

4.6.3.3 Continuous Round Balers27

5.Conclusions28

6.Recommendations28

References30

Bibliography32

Appendix33

List of Figures

Page

Figure 1: Biorefinery and Satellite Preprocessing Facilities Feedstock draw areas…(30)

List of Tables

Page

Table I: Estimated available harvest time, land area harvested, and biomass harvested for alternative harvest methods for switchgrass in Vermeer……………………(30)

Table II: Operations sequence by harvest method? ………………………………..(31)

Table III: Selected equipment budgets for alternate switchgrass harvest and preprocessing systems……………………………………………………………………(31)

List of Abbreviations

GIS……………………………………………………...Geographical Information System

LCB…………………………………………………….. Lignocellulosic Biomass

ASAE……………………………………… American Society of Agricultural Engineers

AAEA…………………………………… American Agricultural Economics Association

DoE…………………………………………………………………Department of Energy

Glossary

Geographical Information System (GIS): It is a system that captures, stores, analyzes, manages and presents data with reference to geographic location data

Lignocellulosic Biomass (LCB):It refers to plant biomass that is composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, and ...