• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.381-390
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• 2002

Direct seeding of rice-seed pellets is expected to be an alternative for solving problems in current direct seeding cultivation of rice. but mass production of rice-seed pellets is prerequisite for practical application. Design. construction and performance evaluation of an experimental rice seed pelleting machine were carried out for mass production of rice-seed pellets. The pelleting machine intended to make a ball type rice-seed pellet, which have 3∼5 rice seeds and diameter of which is 12 mm. Pellet materials ; rice seeds, soil, and binder were mixed and kneaded by the mixer. The designed rice seed pelleting machine fed pellet materials by screw conveyor to forming rolls and made rice-seed pellets. Capacity, ratio of perfect rice-seed pellets, seed and pellet material loss were investigated as mixing ratio of soil to rice seed and feeding rate of pellet materials. The pelleting machine showed up to 37,000 pellets/h of pelleting rate, 61∼71% of weight ratio of perfect rice-seed pellets to pellet materials supplied, 17∼48% of seed loss ratio. Average weight and average diameter of the pellets were 1.66 g and 12.0 mm. respectively. More than 3 rice seeds were included in most pellets at 6 : 1 of mixing ratio of soil to rice seed. And compression strength of the pellets was in the range of 88-130 N. To improve performance of the pelleting machine, improvements of the forming rolls, feeding mechanism, and discharging mechanism for reducing loss of pellet materials and seeds damage are needed.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.23-37
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• 2023

One type of biomass that has promising potential for bio pellet production is spent coffee grounds (SCGs). However, previous studies have shown that SCGs in bio pellets cause a lot of smoke. Therefore, they need to be mixed with a material that has a higher calorific value to produce better quality pellets. One material that can be used is pine wood because it has a natural resin content that can increase the calorific value. The aim of this study was to examine the quality of bio pellets produced with SCGs and pine wood charcoal at different particle sizes. The charcoal was ground using either a hammer mill (HM) or a ball mill (BM). Pine wood charcoal was mixed with SCGs at ratios of SCGs to pine wood charcoal of 4:6 and 6:4 by weight, respectively, and the adhesive used a tapioca with a composition ratio 5% of the raw material. The bio pellets were produced using a manual pellet press. The quality of the bio pellets was assessed based on Indonesian National Standard (SNI) 8021-2014, and the physical observations include flame length, burning rate, and compressive strength. The average water content, ash content, and calorific value of the bio pellets were in accordance with SNI 8021-2014, but the density and ash content values were below the standard values. The BM variation of bio pellets had a higher compressive strength than the HM variation, and the 4:6 BM variation had the longest burning time compared with 4:6 HM.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.23-28
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• 2007

Wood fuel must be dried before combustion to minimize the energy loss. Sawdust of Japanese red pine was dried in a direct contact thermal screw dryer to investigate the drying characteristics of sawdust as a raw material for bio-fuel. Average drying rate and energy efficiency was 1.4%/min and 69.23% at $100^{\circ}C$, respectively, and those at $120^{\circ}C$ was 2.1%/min and 71.03%, respectively.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.325-331
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• 2021

In this study, bio-carbons were produced by activation process from unused biomass (Grade 3 wood pellet and spent coffee grounds) to determine the removal performance of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde. The activation experiments were conducted in a fixed bed reactor using CO₂ as an activation agent. The temperature of the activation reactor and input of CO₂ were 900 ℃ and 1 L min^-1 for all the experiments. The maximum BET surface area of about 788 m² g^-1 was obtained for bio-carbon produced from Grade 1 wood pellet, whereas about 544 m² g^-1 was achieved with bio-carbon produced from spent coffee grounds. In all the experiments, the bio-carbons produced were mainly found to have micro-porous nature. A lower ash amount in raw material was favored for the high surface area of bio-carbons. In the removal test of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, the bio-carbon produced from spent coffee grounds showed excellent adsorption performance compared with woody biomass (Grade 1 wood pellet and Grade 3 wood pellet). In addition, the comparative experiment of commercial impregnated activated carbon and bio-carbon produced from spent coffee grounds was conducted. In terms of formaldehyde removal performance, the commercial impregnated bio-carbon was excellent, while bio-carbon produced from spent coffee grounds was excellent in acetaldehyde removal.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.184-190
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• 2004

The influences of impeller types on morphology and protein expression were investigated in a submerged culture of Aspergillus oryzae. The impeller types strongly affected mycelial morphology and protein production in batch and fed-batch fermentations. Cells that were cultured by propeller agitation grew in the form of a pellet, whereas cells that were cultured by turbine agitation grew in a freely dispersed-hyphal manner and in a clumped form. Pellet-grown cells showed high levels of protein production for both the intracellularly heterologous protein (${\beta}$-glucuronidase) and the extracellularly homologous protein (${\alpha}$-amylase). The feeding mode of the carbon source also influenced the morphological distribution and protein expression in fed-batch fermentation of A. oryzae. Pulsed-feeding mainly showed high protein expression and homogeneous distribution of pellet whereas continuous feeding resulted in less protein expression and heterogeneous distribution with pellet and dispersed-hyphae. The pellet growth with propeller agitation paralleling with the pulsed-feeding of carbon source showed a high level of protein production in the submerged fed-batch fermentation of recombinant A. oryzae.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.32.1-32.6
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• 2016

A feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of two different sizes of extruded pellets (EP) ($EP_1$ - 3 mm or $EP_2$ - 5 mm) and a moist pellet (MP) in olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, reared in semi-recirculation system. A total of 450 fish with an average initial weight of $5.0{\pm}0.2g$ (mean ${\pm}$ SD) were fed one of the three experimental diets in triplicate groups. At the end of a 6-week feeding trial, weight gain, specific growth rate, and feed efficiency of fish fed EP diets were significantly higher than those of fish fed MP (P < 0.05). Water quality parameters like turbidity, total ammonia nitrogen, and total phosphorous from tanks of fish fed $EP_1$ and $EP_2$ were significantly lower than those from tanks of fish fed MP. Blood plasma glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase and glucose concentration were significantly higher in fish fed MP diet compared to fish fed EP diets (P < 0.05). Whole body crude protein contents in fish fed EP diets were higher than those from the fish fed MP diet. Whole body amino acid content like threonine, aspartic acid, serine, tyrosine, and cystine were found to be significantly higher in fish fed EP diets than those in fish fed MP diet. In considering overall performance of olive flounder, $EP_2$ diet could be recommended for the successful aquaculture of this important fish species.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.329-334
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• 2007

Osmotic pellet system, which is one of the oral drug delivery systems, has been developed to improve manufacturing process, reduce product cost and other problems of osmotic tablet systems. Osmotic pellet is consisted of water swellable seed layer, drug layer, and membrane layer. Among them, the membrane layer plays an important role in a control of the drug release. In this work, we examined the effect of ratio for Eudragit RL and RS on the drug release behavior. Osmotic pellet with nifedipine as a model drug was easily obtained in a good yield by fluidized bed coater. Osmotic pellet showed round morphology with a range of size $1300{\sim}1500\;{\mu}m$. In the experiment of nifedipine release, the release amount increased with the increase of the ratio of Eudragit. This is due to the fact that Eudragit RL contains more hydrophilic quaternary ammonium group than Eudragit RS. Additionally, the release amount was retarded with increasing the membrane thickness. There are no differences in the release amount measured at the different pH 1.2, 6.5, 6.8, and 7.2. In conclusion, it was found that the drug release from osmotic pellets depended on the composition ratio and coating thickness of membrane layer.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.23-31
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• 2022

This study evaluated the potential of coffee waste (CW) and used frying oil (UFO) as an additive in the production of pitch pine (PIP) and Mongolian oak (MOK) pellets. Ash contents obtained from CW and UFO were 0.5% and <0.1%, respectively. The calorific values of UFO (31.4 MJ/kg) and CW (26.3 MJ/kg) are higher than PIP (20.6 MJ/kg) and MOK (19.1 MJ/kg). For pellets fabricated using a pilot-scale flat-die pellet mill, regardless of fabricating conditions, moisture content (MC) and bulk density of PIP and MOK pellets satisfied the A1 wood pellet standard for residential and small-scale commercial uses, as designated by the National Institute of Forest Science (NIFOS) of the Republic of Korea. When CW was used as an additive, durability of PIP pellets made with 12%-MC sawdust and MOK pellets increased. The optimal conditions for producing PIP and MOK pellets could be by adding 20 mesh CW as an additive and the using of 12%-MC sawdust. However, durability of PIP pellets and ash content MOK pellets did not satisfy the A1 wood pellet standard of NIFOS. Thus, further research is needed to improve the properties of wood pellets with additives.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.36-44
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• 1998

To develope cost-effective new granular formulation of mixture with 7.0% chlomethoxyfen and 3.5% butachlor, this study was conducted by investigation of floatability, dispersibility or collapsability and released concentration of active ingredients in water and bio-efficacies of the granules formulated by different formulation methods compared to commercial pellet-extruded granules. They were formulated by coating on or impregnation into extruded pellets, sands and zeolites with two active ingredients, binders, friction reducer, dispersing agents and bentonite. Pellet-coated method showed similar floatability, collapsability and bio-efficacy to the commercial pellet-extruded one or better than that but unstable patterns of released concentration of chlomethoxyfen because of easy isolation of coated technical particles from the surface of granules. Sand-coated methods showed similar physical properties, released pattern of two active ingredients, and bio-efficacy to the commercial one. Liquid binders and/or dispersing agents are more important than powdered ones to control released concentration of active ingredients from the granule mixtures, to improve the floatability and dispersibility, and to show good bio-efficacy. Sand-coated one might be a suitable method if types and amount of liquid binders and dispersing agents are selected.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.328-333
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• 2008

The osmotic delivery systems are based on osmosis. The transverse diffusion of water through a porous membrane from a medium with a low osmotic pressure to a medium with a high osmotic pressure. Nifedipine tablet dosage forms of Procardia $XL^{(R)}$(Pfizer) and $Adalat^{(R)}$(Bayer) are commercialized systems of this type that push-pull osmotic tablet operates successfully in delivering water-insoluble drugs. We prepared osmotic pellet system by fluidized bed coating method, and model-drug used nifedipine. The osmotic pellet system was composed of the core material. the swelling and osmotic pressure layer, the drug coating layer, and the porous membrane. This work is performed to investigate the effect of different factors, such as composition and thickness of membrane. The osmotic pellet has been successfully prepared by fluidized bed coating technology. The drug release behavior depended on the increase of CA ratio and thickness in porous membrane. The morphology of the osmotic pellet before and after the dissolution test were observed by SEM. In conclusion, we found that the drug release of osmotic pellet depended on the composition and coating thickness of porous membrane.