10-15T/H Organic Compost Granule and Powder Production Line in Thailand

What makes this 10-15t/h organic compost granule and powder production line in Thailand particularly effective is its dual-product strategy. The line produces 50,000 tons per year of standard organic fertilizer in powder form, ideal for bulk soil amendment in rice paddies and sugarcane fields, alongside 50,000 tons of granular bio-organic fertilizer incorporating functional microbial strains for higher-value fruit and vegetable crops.

This flexibility allows the cooperative to serve both commodity farmers seeking low-cost soil conditioners and specialty crop growers requiring premium biological products.

The equipment package, shipped from Qingdao to Laem Chabang port, includes fermentation turners, multiple crusher types, continuous mixers, two fertilizer granulator machine configurations, a rotary dryer, cooling systems, and complete dust collection, all automated through PLC controls to ensure consistent quality meeting Thai agricultural standards.

How the Conversation Started

The client first contacted us in March 2025. A technical director from a large agricultural cooperative in Suphanburi Province had been researching solutions for a problem that was becoming impossible to ignore.

Central Thailand generates enormous volumes of livestock manure—over 200,000 tons annually within their cooperative's catchment area alone—and crop residues from rice, corn, and sugarcane harvests.

Traditionally, most of this material was either left to decompose haphazardly or burned in the fields, creating air quality issues that were drawing increasing complaints from local communities.

During our initial video call, the client's team asked questions that showed they'd thought deeply about the challenge:

• "We have 62 large pig farms and hundreds of smaller operations in our network. The manure is piling up and regulators are starting to ask questions. Can a single line really handle that volume?"
• "The straw from rice and corn harvests comes in waves—huge amounts twice per year, then nothing. How do you keep the line running year-round?"
• "Our members need different products. Rice farmers want cheap powder they can spread bulk. Fruit growers need consistent granules that work in mechanical spreaders. Can one line do both?"

The cooperative already had a business model in place. They operated a "company plus farmers" system where they supplied inputs to member farmers and purchased their outputs. Adding fertilizer production was a logical vertical integration step—they could collect waste from livestock farmers, process it, and sell it back to crop farmers at fair prices.

We spent the next month working through the details. Site visits, material sampling, lab testing, layout planning, and equipment specification. The cooperative had secured a 60-acre site near Suphanburi, with good road access and existing utilities. The location was ideal—surrounded by livestock operations and within reasonable trucking distance of rice, sugarcane, and vegetable growing areas.

The only missing piece was the right equipment configured for their specific raw materials and product mix.

Raw Material Sourcing and Seasonal Planning

Before we could design the equipment, we needed to understand the feedstock characteristics and seasonal variations. Central Thailand's agricultural waste streams are abundant but irregular.

The cooperative's catchment area includes:

Total manure available: roughly 200,000 tons annually. The cooperative planned to collect 160,000 tons per year—80% of the total—through their member network.

Crop residues added another dimension:

The seasonal challenge was real. Rice harvests happen twice per year in most of Thailand, three times in some irrigated areas. During harvest weeks, straw arrives by the truckload. Between harvests, supply drops sharply.

The client had a solution already in mind: they would use mushroom cultivation residue during the off-seasons. Thailand has a significant mushroom farming sector, and spent substrate—the material left after mushrooms are harvested—is an excellent organic fertilizer feedstock.

It's already partially decomposed by fungal activity and has good moisture content. They arranged contracts with mushroom farms to supply approximately 1,200 tons of spent substrate annually to fill the gaps between straw harvests.

Here's the final raw material matrix we designed for the Suphanburi operation:

The manure required careful handling. The client specified that all collected manure must undergo solid-liquid separation at the source before transport. Large farms had their own separation equipment. Smallholders performed manual separation—labor-intensive but effective. The separated solid manure, now at approximately 65% moisture, was bagged or loaded into covered trucks for transport to the facility.

Straw arrived in bales during harvest seasons. The cooperative built covered storage with capacity for 15,000 tons—enough to buffer between harvests. The storage area was designed with concrete floors and roof cover to prevent moisture absorption from rain, which can turn straw into a moldy mess if not protected.

Facility Layout and Design

The 60-acre site allowed generous spacing between different functional areas—important for both operational efficiency and environmental management.

We arranged the facility into several distinct zones:

Raw material receiving and storage:

• Covered straw storage: 15,000-ton capacity
• Manure receiving area with truck wash station
• Liquid manure holding (minimal, since most arrives separated)
• Mushroom residue receiving area

Fermentation and composting area:

• Fermentation building: 8,100 square meters
• Four fermentation bays, each 90 meters long by 9 meters wide
• Enclosed structure with negative pressure ventilation to control odors

Post-fermentation processing:

• Curing building: 1,000 square meters
• Crushing and screening area
• Mixing and blending station

Granulation and finishing:

• Granulation building: 1,500 square meters
• Drying and cooling area
• Screening and polishing equipment
• Packaging lines

Storage and auxiliary:

• Finished product warehouse: 1,000 square meters
• Packaging materials storage: 640 square meters
• Laboratory and office building: 370 square meters
• Worker facilities: 275 square meters
• Test farming plot: 2 acres for product trials

The layout followed the process flow logically: raw materials enter at one end, move through fermentation and processing, then to granulation and packaging at the opposite end. This U-shaped flow minimized cross-traffic and reduced the risk of contaminating finished product with raw material dust.

Equipment Configuration

With raw materials characterized and site layout finalized, we selected the equipment package. The 10-15t/h organic compost granule and powder production line needed to handle both powder and granule production efficiently.

Here's the complete equipment package we installed:

Total installed power: approximately 650 kW. The cooperative's site had adequate transformer capacity from previous agricultural operations.

The drying system deserves special mention. For the bio-organic granule line, moisture needed to drop from fermentation levels (around 30-35%) down to approximately 8% before granulation. The two rotary dryers, each 1.4 meters in diameter and 6 meters long, provided sufficient capacity.

We specified electric heating rather than direct-fired to maintain consistent temperature control—critical for preserving microbial viability in the bio-organic products.

For dust control—essential in any fertilizer operation—we installed collection hoods at every crusher, screen, mixer, and transfer point. The baghouse system returns collected dust to the process, minimizing waste and keeping the working environment clean. The exhaust discharges through a 15-meter stack meeting Thai industrial emission standards.

Process Flow – From Raw Material to Finished Product

The production manager wanted to understand every step before the equipment arrived. Here's how material flows through the 10-15t/h organic compost granule and powder production line in Thailand.

Standard Organic Fertilizer (Powder) – 50,000 tons/year

Raw material receiving and pre-processing: Manure arrives in covered trucks and is weighed at the entrance. Trucks pass through a wheel wash station before proceeding to the receiving area. Straw is unloaded at the covered storage area.

Fermentation: Manure and straw are mixed in the conditioning mixer at approximately 1:1 ratio by volume (adjusting for carbon-to-nitrogen balance). The mixture is formed into windrows in the fermentation bays.

The chain plate turner passes through each bay every 2-3 days, aerating the material and maintaining aerobic conditions. Fermentation continues for approximately 30 days, during which temperature naturally rises to 60-70°C—sufficient to kill weed seeds and pathogens.

Curing: After active fermentation, material is transferred to the curing building for another 30-45 days. During this period, microbial activity slows, and the material stabilizes into mature compost. The continuous mixer blends batches to ensure consistency.

Final processing: Cured material passes through the vertical crusher for size reduction, then the vibrating screen to remove oversize particles (which are returned to crushing). At this point, the material is ready for packaging as standard powder organic fertilizer at approximately 30% moisture.

Bio-Organic Fertilizer (Granule) – 50,000 tons/year

For the granule line, the process follows the same fermentation and curing steps, then adds several stages:

Nutrient blending: Mature compost is fed into the electronic batching scale system, where inorganic nutrients (N, P, K, micronutrients) are added according to target formulations. Microbial cultures and amino acid solution are also introduced at this stage.

Fine grinding: The blended material passes through an additional vertical crusher to achieve particle size suitable for granulation—typically 50 mesh or finer.

Drying: Moisture must be reduced from approximately 30% down to 8% for effective granulation. Material enters the rotary dryer, where heated air (electric, temperature controlled) reduces moisture over 15-20 minutes residence time.

Granulation: Dried material feeds into the organic fertilizer pellet machines. The rotating die forces material through holes, forming dense cylindrical granules. The two granulators operate in parallel to achieve the 10-15 t/h target.

Polishing: Fresh granules have rough surfaces. They pass through the polisher, where gentle tumbling rounds the edges and smooths the surface.

Cooling: Hot granules enter the vertical cooler, where ambient air drawn upward through the column reduces temperature to near-ambient. This prevents moisture migration in storage bags.

Screening: Cooled granules pass through the rotary screen. On-size product (typically 2-4mm) continues to packaging. Oversize material is crushed and returned to granulation. Fines are returned to the front of the granulation line.

Packaging: Finished granules are bagged in 25kg or 50kg plastic woven bags using the automatic packer.

Key Process Parameters

Quality Control and Standards

The Thai organic fertilizer market has clear expectations. The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives regulates fertilizer quality through the Fertilizer Act B.E. 2550 (2007), which sets standards for nutrient content, moisture, and contaminants.

We designed the line to meet or exceed these requirements:

The cooperative built a small laboratory in the office building, equipped with a drying oven, balance, pH meter, and basic wet chemistry apparatus. They also contracted with a local agricultural university for quarterly third-party testing to validate their internal results.

For the bio-organic line, microbial viability is critical. The cultures are stored in a dedicated 300-square-meter chilled storage room to maintain potency until use. The coating process applies cultures gently to avoid damaging sensitive microorganisms.

Logistics – From Qingdao to Suphanburi

The client asked about shipping early in the process. They'd heard stories of equipment stuck in ports for months and wanted assurance.

We explained our standard process. All fabrication happens at our workshops near Zhengzhou. Once equipment is tested and crated, it moves by truck to Qingdao port—our closest major international port with frequent sailings to Southeast Asia.

For this organic fertilizer production project, we shipped in three batches:

The destination port was Laem Chabang, Thailand's largest deepwater port, located on the eastern Gulf coast approximately 120 kilometers from Bangkok. From Laem Chabang, equipment moved by truck to the Suphanburi site—about a 2-hour drive.

Transit time from Qingdao to Laem Chabang averaged 6-7 days. Customs clearance took another 5 days—slightly longer than usual due to some documentation revisions, but within the range we'd estimated.

We provided detailed packing lists, lifting plans, and assembly drawings with each shipment. The cooperative hired a local crane contractor with industrial equipment experience. Unloading took three days. Positioning the equipment inside the buildings took another two weeks.

Installation and commissioning proceeded through late 2025. The line was mechanically complete by December, and we ran first material in early January 2026. The first few tons from the granulator were either too wet or too dry—typical commissioning adjustments—but by mid-January, we had consistent product at target specifications.

Why This Model Works for Thailand

Thailand's agricultural sector is under pressure from multiple directions. Rice farmers face falling margins and environmental restrictions on straw burning. Livestock operators face mounting waste management costs. Fruit and vegetable growers need consistent, high-quality inputs to meet export standards.

A 10-15t/h organic compost granule and powder production line addresses all of these pressures simultaneously. It creates a market for materials that previously had negative value. It produces exactly the products that Thai farmers are already buying—at lower cost than imported alternatives. And it does so in an environmentally responsible way that aligns with government policy.

The Thai government's "Green Agriculture" initiative actively promotes organic fertilizer adoption through subsidies and technical support. With over 1.6 million hectares certified for organic farming and the organic fertilizer market growing at nearly 10% annually, the demand fundamentals are strong.

The cooperative in Suphanburi is now operating two shifts during peak seasons, processing manure and straw that previously created environmental problems. Their members receive fair prices for waste materials and access to affordable fertilizer in return. Local regulators have cited the project as a model for other districts.

Perhaps most importantly, the organic fertilizer production line's flexibility—producing both powder for bulk soil amendment and granules for precision application—allows them to serve the full spectrum of farmers in their network. Rice paddies get low-cost powder. Fruit orchards get consistent granules. Vegetable growers get bio-enriched products with active cultures. One line, multiple products, one investment.

Thinking About Your Own Project

If you're facing similar challenges with agricultural waste in your region, you're not alone. We've engineered organic fertilizer lines across Southeast Asia—Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and beyond. The raw materials vary—rice straw in one place, palm waste in another, cassava residue somewhere else—but the process fundamentals remain the same.

Here's what we need to start a conversation:

• Raw material types, volumes, and seasonal patterns
• Target products and annual output requirements
• Site dimensions and available utilities
• Your timeline and budget parameters

Send Richi Machinery those details and we'll develop preliminary numbers. We'll show you what a 10-15t/h organic compost granule and powder production line would look like in your facility—equipment, layout, investment, payback.

All equipment ships from Qingdao to any port you specify. We've completed over 40 projects across Southeast Asia. The engineering we put into Suphanburi can work for you too.