Effect of extruder parameters on some mechanical properties of pelleted compost

Converting the organic wastes and losses into compost is an appropriate technique to stabilize organic materials. One of the limitative factors in transporting and storing the composts is their low specific mass which usually leads to increase costs in their processing. To overcome this limitation, several methods such as pelleting have been proposed especially for efficient processing of powdery materials. In this study, the effects of pellet particle size (in two levels: 1 and 2 mm), pellet’s moisture content (in three levels: 25, 35, and 45%, wet basis), and kneading length (in three levels: 1, 2, and 3 m) have been investigated on some mechanical properties of obtained pellets including fracture energy, fracture force, and toughness. Obtained pellets were produced using a kneading extruder machine. Experimental results showed that the effect of length of kneading on all studied mechanical properties was significant (p