In this study, the availability of cow manure as raw material for solid fuel production was investigated. Since the water content of the cow manure was too high, it was dewatered using a laboratory hydraulic compressure (
$11.3kg/cm^2$). The moisture content of the cow manure decreased from 82.01% to 73.36 wt.%. The dewatered cow manure was homogenized by the experimental apparatus and then put into the rotating cylindrical apparatus. From the consecutive processes, the cow ball-shaped pellet which size ranged from 3.0 to 25.0 mm was produced. The major factor for making palletized fuel from cow manure was the moisture content. Based on the experimental data, the moisture content of cow manure for pelletizing cow manure was identified as 65~75 wt.%. When the moisture content of the cow manure was lower than 30 wt.%, the diameter of the pellets maded from cow manure was smaller than 3 mm. On the other hand, when the water content of the cow manure was higher than 75 wt/%, the diameter of the processed pellets tended to be larger than 25 mm. The characteristics of the processed cow manure pellets was analyzed to be in accordance with the livestock solid fuel quality standard. The pyrolysis characteristic of the pellet was analyzed by raising the heating temperature of the experimental equipment from 200 to
$900^{\circ}C$. The mass change between of 20 and
$130^{\circ}C$ corresponds to the amount of moisture contained in the cow manure. The amount of moisture was about 15% of the total weight of cow manure samples. The cow manure pellet was thermally stable up to
$280^{\circ}C$. It can be interpreted that combustion of cow manure pellet does not occur until the surface temperature reaches
$280^{\circ}C$. The mass change of pellet between of 280 and
$450^{\circ}C$ was considered to be due to the vaporization of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in the cow manure pellet. The maximum production of VOCs was showed near
$330^{\circ}C$.
Keywords: Cow manure;Solidified fuel;Pellet;Pyrolysis;