Hay Straw Pellet Production Line In Moldova

RICHI MACHINERY

overview

In an agricultural hinterland in the central part of the Republic of Moldova, an emerging agricultural complex officially signed and launched a 3-12 tons/hour hay straw pellet production line Moldova in July 2023.

This investment marks a new stage in the field of renewable resource utilization in rural Moldova. Behind this decision is the customer’s keen insight into future market trends and bold practice of comprehensive utilization of herbaceous resources.

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Project Background and Customer Motivation

The initiator of the hay straw pellet production line Moldova project is an investor with many years of agricultural background. His agricultural cooperative is mainly engaged in forage planting and primary processing business.

As the Moldovan government vigorously promotes agricultural modernization and green energy transformation, the customer noticed that a large amount of local agricultural and forestry residues have not been reasonably utilized for a long time, especially wheat straw, grassland hay and barley straw, which cause resource waste and environmental problems every year due to burning, decay or abandonment.

When the customer first contacted us in November 2022, its initial goal was to purchase a biomass dryer with a capacity of 15 tons/hour to dry the above-mentioned crop residues for easy storage and transportation.

However, as the hay straw pellet production line Moldova project negotiations deepened, the customer gradually realized that if these raw materials were further processed into pellets, it would not only effectively increase the added value of the raw materials, but also open up two-way export channels for the feed market and biomass energy. This idea quickly gained the support of the team and shareholders.

This is the content of the customer’s first consultation:

“We would like to discuss with your team as a large project in Moldova:
The project specifics are as follows
15 T per hr biomass dryer. For drying, wheat straw, meadow hay, barley straw
This fryer needs to be connected to a horizontal baler (which we allready own)
You can contact me on email.
We would like to arrange a visit to your factory as well as working projects similar to our request”

On this basis, the customer hopes to achieve an integrated production model from raw material crushing, drying, mixing to granulation, cooling, screening and final packaging, so as to create Moldova’s first modern pellet production base with large-scale grass pelleting capabilities.

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Raw material type and source analysis

The raw materials of this hay straw pellet production line Moldova project mainly include three categories: wheat straw, meadow hay and barley straw. These three types of resources are widely distributed in Moldova’s arable land, with significant seasonality and collectability. The following are their characteristics:

• Wheat straw: Moldova has a wide wheat planting area, with July-August as the main harvesting period each year. The straw yield is abundant and the fiber length is moderate, making it an ideal pellet raw material.
• Grassland hay: It includes natural grassland harvested grass and forage crops such as ryegrass and fescue, which have moderate protein content and are an important source of livestock feed.
• Barley straw: As a by-product of the barley industry, it has a hard texture and high moisture content, and is slightly more difficult to process, but its calorific value and fiber structure are suitable for pelleting.

These raw materials mainly come from customer-owned and cooperative farms, with an annual supply of up to 80,000 tons of raw materials, which can fully support an annual pelleting capacity of tens of thousands of tons.

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process design of hay straw pellet production line Moldova

The hay straw pellet production line Moldova project adopts a horizontal layout to achieve smooth connection of production links and convenient equipment maintenance.

The entire biomass pellet production line is planned according to the typical herbal granule preparation process of “raw material crushing – drying – mixing – granulation – cooling – screening – packaging”, and a fine mixing system is added in the middle to improve the uniformity and palatability of the final granules.

Brief description of the process flow:

1. Crushing section: Use a high-efficiency hammer mill to finely control the length of the raw materials to ensure that the ideal particle size is achieved during drying and granulation.
2. Drying system: Equipped with a 15T/H drum hot air dryer, it can be adapted to forage raw materials with different moisture contents to ensure that the moisture content after drying is controlled between 12%-15%.
3. Mixing system: Use a double-shaft horizontal mixer to fully mix different types of forage powder to improve the consistency of granule quality.
4. Granulator section: Use the MZLH520 straw pellet machine, which has a high compression ratio, high stability and an adjustable pressure roller structure, suitable for granulating high-fiber raw materials.
5. Cooling system: Use a countercurrent cooling tower to quickly reduce the temperature of the granules and enhance the hardness.
6. Screening and packaging section: Powder and unqualified particles are removed by vibrating screen, and then the finished product is packaged by automatic packaging machine.

The design capacity of the whole straw pellet plant is 3-12 tons/hour, with significant elastic adjustment ability, suitable for seasonal raw material fluctuations and market order adjustments.

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Equipment configuration and core technology

The main equipment used in this hay straw pellet production line Moldova is as follows:

• MZLH520 straw hay pellet machine (1 set)
• Drum biomass dryer (1 set)
• Double-axis horizontal mixer (1 set)
• High-efficiency hammer mill (1 set)
• Countercurrent cooler (1 set)
• Three-layer vibrating screen (1 set)
• Automatic weighing packaging machine (1 set)

These equipment are selected and configured by our company according to the characteristics of customer raw materials, plant area and budget conditions to ensure stable performance, controllable energy consumption and convenient operation.

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Applicable pellet types expandability

In addition to pellet feeds mainly based on hay and straw, this hay straw pellet production line Moldova can also easily adapt to the processing of the following types of products:

• Wood pellets (for heating and industrial fuel)
• Bean stalks, corn stalks and other crop residue pellets
• Medicinal material residues, biomass fiber mixtures
• Dried poultry and livestock manure mixed with auxiliary materials pellets (organic fertilizer pellets)

Therefore, this hay straw pellet production line Moldova not only has the adaptability of diverse raw materials, but also provides rich possibilities for customers to expand their product lines in the future.

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Moldova’s development prospects and localized innovation

As a country with a very high proportion of agriculture in GDP, Moldova faces upgrading pressure in renewable resources, animal feed and energy structure adjustment. In recent years, with the promotion of the EU’s green policies and the development of the biomass market in neighboring countries (such as Romania and Ukraine), the country has also vigorously promoted the industrialization of resources such as straw, livestock and poultry manure, and forestry waste.

Especially in the central and northern regions, a large number of small and medium-sized farms and cooperatives still process straw and forage in traditional ways, and the completion of this production line has undoubtedly set a benchmark for Moldova.

It is worth mentioning that the hay straw pellet production line Moldova project was designed to be compatible with the customer’s original horizontal baling system at the beginning, and a bypass discharge was set after the drying process to meet the customer’s actual needs for switching between the “drying + baling” and “drying + pelleting” modes. This is a customized innovation specifically made for the strong seasonality of the Moldovan hay market and the diversified needs of users.

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Case Summary and Inspiration

The transaction amount of the hay straw pellet production line Moldova project was US$142,660 when it was signed in July 2023, covering a full set of core equipment.

Although the initial demand was for drying equipment, with a deeper understanding of the pellet market, the customer decisively adjusted his thinking and finally chose to move from a single device to a complete pelleting line. This strategic change fully demonstrated his keen grasp of market trends and scientific assessment of actual needs.

During the implementation process, our engineering team provided on-site layout planning, equipment commissioning guidance and operation training to help customers quickly put into production. So far, the production line has been running stably, with good customer feedback. Some products have begun to be sold to the outside world, and we are in contact with feed buyers in Romania and Bulgaria.

This hay straw pellet production line Moldova project not only increases the industrial added value of Moldovan herbal resources, but also accumulates valuable experience for our company to further develop the Eastern European market.

In the future, as the national biomass strategic planning of Moldova is further clarified, this type of pellet processing production line will usher in a larger scale of promotion opportunities.