Design and Performance Evaluation of a Rice Straw Chopper for Enhancing Agricultural Waste Processing Efficiency in Paper Production in Khlong Luang Phaeng Sub-District Chachoengsao Province

Abstract

This research aims to develop a rice straw chopper innovation to enhance the efficiency of rice straw paper production within the Khlong Luang Phaeng community, Chachoengsao Province. The methodology involved the design and fabrication of a 1.5 horsepower rice straw chopper prototype, followed by a performance evaluation comparing the reference baseline of the conventional chopping method with experimental results obtained from the prototype. The results show that the prototype machine significantly decreased raw material preparation time, with the average duration decreasing from 23.33 minutes per kilogram to 1.21 minutes per kilogram. Concurrently, an increase in straw mass loss was observed, totaling 99.09 grams, or 9.91 percent of the initial straw volume. The experimental results unequivocally indicate that the implementation of the rice straw chopper effectively resolves the raw material preparation bottleneck, successfully achieving the goal of increasing the production rate and elevating the overall capability for processing agricultural waste. However, the increased material loss presents a critical consideration for the future development of the chopper's design, necessary to attain a processing system that maximizes efficiency in both time and resource utilization.