Laboratory examination of probe type injectors for ammonia (urea) treatment of baled wheat straw

Abstract

A portable hand-held device to inject liquid urea solution was designed, built and tested on conventional wheat straw bales. The effects of types of injector, injection pressures and modes of injection on wetted area i.e. liquid distribution pattern and liquid retaining efficiency of baled straw were studied. The liquid was injected at different injection pressures of 1.0, 2.5, 4.0 and 5.5 kg/cm² in central horizontal (M1) and eccentric horizontal (M2) modes of injection at predetermined five number Of injecting stations using single orifice flat fan (N1), two-transverse orifice (N2) and triple orifice (N3) injectors. The injector N2 was found best in terms of maximum values of wetted area (55.90%) and liquid retaining efficiency (66.60%) at 4 kg/cm² injection pressure in M2 mode of injection followed by N3 and N1 injectors. Doubling the number of injecting stations to ten had appreciably increased the liquid retaining efficiency and moisture content of ammonia (urea) treated baled straw.