0.3–0.5 T/H Coconut Husk Pellet Machine in Sri Lanka

The Raw Material Comes after Coir Processing, Not Directly from Fresh Coconuts

This distinction is fundamental to the project.

Sri Lanka has a mature coir industry. Coconut husks can be processed into brown fibre, white fibre, coir pith, chips and other horticultural or industrial products. High-quality long fibre already has established uses and should not be ground unnecessarily simply to create pellet-machine feedstock.

The customer therefore keeps valuable fibre products in their normal sales channels.

The MZLH350 section receives lower-grade coir fractions that are more difficult to market in loose form, including short fibre, screened pith and suitable husk-fibre residues generated during processing.

Why Gampaha Is a Logical Location for the Project

Gampaha lies within Sri Lanka’s major coconut-producing and processing region and gives the customer access to multiple coconut and coir suppliers rather than depending on the husks from one small plantation.

This supply structure is important because two MZLH350 machines can consume a meaningful amount of prepared fibre when both operate at the same time.

The customer aggregates residual material from its own operation and several nearby processors, giving the plant enough flexibility to run one machine during normal periods and both during larger bedding orders.

The Project Is Not Based on the Claim That Sri Lanka Produces Three Billion Coconuts Every Year

Coconut output changes materially from year to year.

The customer therefore does not calculate available raw material by taking one national coconut-production figure and multiplying it by a fixed husk weight.

Its investment is based on contracted tonnes of usable coir residue from actual suppliers.

This is especially important in Sri Lanka because coconut raw-material availability can tighten during lower-production periods, creating competition between food processors, coir manufacturers and other coconut-product industries.

Why Animal Bedding Remained a Credible Product Direction

Coconut-derived bedding is not an invented application for this case.

Sri Lankan producers already manufacture coco-based animal bedding products, including products specifically marketed for horse stalls. The appeal comes from the absorbent coir structure, renewable origin and potential for reduced reliance on conventional wood-based bedding.

The customer saw greater value in selling a prepared bedding product than in trying to compete only in a commodity biomass-fuel market.

Its target customers include equestrian distributors and livestock-product importers rather than relying entirely on the number of horses inside Sri Lanka.

This export-oriented approach is more consistent with Sri Lanka’s established coir-products industry.

Two MZLH350 Units Instead of One Larger Pellet Mill

The customer preferred two smaller machines because its orders are not constant throughout the year.

One MZLH350 can run when only moderate quantities are required. Both can operate when export orders accumulate.

The arrangement also gives the factory maintenance flexibility. A ring-die inspection or roller adjustment on one machine does not automatically stop all pellet production.

Whole Coconut Husk Must Be Opened before Pelletizing

A coconut husk is a large, tough fibrous structure. It cannot simply be pushed through the forced feeder of an MZLH350.

In this project, the material has already passed through coir-processing equipment before reaching the bedding-pellet section.

Long fibre is separated for other products, while the residual fraction is screened and reduced to a manageable size.

If any remaining fibre pieces are still too long, a secondary shredder or fibre-opening machine is used before final conditioning.

The objective is to prevent long strands from wrapping around the feeding system or producing unstable flow into the ring die.

A Spice Hammer Mill Is Not Used as the Main Coconut-Husk Grinder

The customer already had several small grinding machines elsewhere in the business, but equipment used for spices was not simply reassigned to heavy coir processing.

Coconut fibre is bulky and stringy and requires a feeding and size-reduction system designed for fibrous material.

Dedicated fibre-opening, shredding or crushing equipment is therefore used where required.

This avoids damaging a machine that was never intended to process long coconut fibre.

The Material Blend Is More Important Than Calling Everything “Husk”

The bedding formulation is not made from one perfectly uniform coconut fraction.

The customer combines screened coir pith with short fibre and selected husk-fibre residues according to the physical properties required from the finished bedding.

Too much fine pith can increase dust and create overly compact pellets.

Too much long fibre makes feeding difficult and can reduce pellet consistency.

The blend is therefore adjusted to maintain both absorbency and stable ring-die operation.

Moisture Has to Be Managed Carefully

Coir-processing residues can vary widely in moisture.

Freshly processed or poorly stored material can be too wet for direct pelletizing, while overly dry pith may create excessive airborne dust and weak feeding behavior.

The customer therefore measures moisture by batch.

Material above the operating range is dried before densification. Drier material can be blended with a slightly wetter fraction where appropriate rather than automatically sending everything through a dryer.

The final pelletizing condition is determined from motor load, pellet formation, die temperature and finished-product strength.

The Project Does Not Assume Coconut Husk Is “More Abrasive Than Wood”

Coir fibre is tough, but toughness and abrasiveness are not the same property.

Wear on the ring die and rollers depends on fibre condition, mineral contamination, sand, moisture and compression settings.

Material that has been allowed to contact soil can be considerably more abrasive than clean processed coir.

For that reason, the customer concentrates on keeping pith and short fibre clean rather than selecting an oversized motor simply because the word “coconut” appears in the raw-material description.

Why 8 mm Was Chosen for the Bedding Pellet

The customer tested the bedding product as a whole rather than selecting diameter only from pellet-mill throughput.

An 8 mm pellet provided a practical balance between bulk handling, breakdown after use and the physical character expected from an animal-bedding product.

The machine can use different ring dies within its normal 4–12 mm range, but the customer standardized its principal bedding product at 8 mm to simplify production.

This also reduces repeated ring-die changes between orders.

The Bedding Pellet Is Designed to Break Down after Moisture Absorption

The customer does not want the pellet to remain permanently hard.

It needs enough mechanical strength to survive cooling, bagging, palletizing and transport, but once placed in the bedding area and exposed to moisture, the coir structure should open and provide a larger absorbent surface.

This requirement affects ring-die compression.

A pellet made unnecessarily hard may survive shipping well but perform poorly as bedding.

The commissioning target was therefore handling durability rather than maximum density.

Pelletizing Is Not What Creates the Absorbency

The absorbent property comes from coconut coir and pith itself.

Pelletizing primarily changes the material’s physical form.

It makes the product denser for storage and shipping, creates a more convenient package, and reduces the amount of loose fibre handled during distribution.

When the bedding is used, the pellets can absorb moisture and loosen into a broader fibre bed.

The customer therefore does not advertise densification as a process that chemically increases the absorption capacity of coconut fibre.

Dust Control Starts before the Pellet Mill

Coir pith can generate considerable fine particulate matter when dry.

The preparation area therefore uses covered conveying, controlled extraction and housekeeping rather than relying on pelletizing alone to solve dust.

The finished pellet form substantially improves handling compared with loose pith, but fines generated during cooling and screening still have to be collected.

This is particularly important for an animal-bedding product whose market value depends partly on clean handling.

Cooling Comes before Packaging

Fresh pellets leaving the MZLH350 are warm and relatively soft.

They pass through the customer’s cooling section before screening.

The screen separates loose fines and damaged pellets, while suitable clean material can be returned to production.

The stabilized bedding pellets are then packed according to the customer’s domestic or export requirements.

Packaging is designed to keep the material dry during storage and ocean transport because coir readily absorbs moisture from its surroundings.

The Customer Does Not Claim the Product Is Completely Dust-Free

Any dry fibrous bedding material can generate some dust if it contains fines or is handled aggressively.

The project therefore focuses on low-fines production rather than making an absolute “dust-free” guarantee.

Raw-material screening, correct pellet compression, gentle cooling and final classification are all used to reduce loose particulate matter.

This is more technically defensible for equestrian and livestock customers.

Why the Product Has an Export Opportunity

Sri Lanka already exports substantial quantities of coir-based products.

Coconut fibre, pith and related processed products are established export categories, meaning the customer is not creating an international coconut-products supply chain from zero.

Animal bedding provides another value-added direction for coir processors that can consistently meet cleanliness, moisture and packaging requirements.

The customer therefore evaluates markets in countries with established equestrian and livestock sectors as well as selected local buyers.

The Product Does Not Depend on Imported Wood-Shaving Prices

The business case is based on converting the customer’s own coir-processing residue into a higher-value finished product.

It does not require the claim that Sri Lanka imports most horse bedding from India or that local wood shavings cost a specific amount.

Those market conditions can change quickly.

The more durable advantage is that the company already controls the coconut-residue supply and has experience processing coir for export.

Not Every Tonne of Coconut Husk Should Become Bedding Pellets

The factory maintains a material hierarchy.

Long, valuable coir fibre remains available for traditional coir products.

Suitable pith can enter horticultural substrates or other existing markets where those outlets provide better value.

The pellet section receives the fraction for which bedding densification offers a competitive return.

This prevents the company from destroying higher-value coir products merely to keep the two MZLH350 units running.

Machine Utilization Follows Orders, Not Theoretical Monthly Capacity

Two MZLH350 machines can provide approximately 0.6–1.0 T/H of combined reference capacity under suitable material conditions.

That does not mean the plant automatically manufactures 160 tonnes every month.

Actual production follows qualified raw-material volume and confirmed bedding orders.

The customer may operate only one machine on some days and both machines during larger campaigns.

This modularity was one of the reasons two MZLH350 units were preferred over one larger pelletizer.

What the Customer Focused on during Commissioning

The first adjustments were made to material feeding rather than ring-die pressure.

Short coir fibre and pith have much lower bulk density than grain. When the mixture was too fluffy, the pellet mill was not receiving a consistent mass flow even though the hopper appeared full.

The arch-breaking and forced-feeding systems were therefore adjusted according to the actual bulk density of each blend.

Once feeding stabilized, the production team could optimize die load and pellet durability more reliably.

What the Customer Learned from the First Bedding Campaigns

“The biggest lesson was that coconut husk is not one material. The long fibre, short fibre and pith all behave differently. Once we separated the valuable fibre first and controlled the blend going into the pellet machines, the output became much more stable and the bedding expanded more consistently after absorbing moisture.”

The customer subsequently tightened its internal specifications for fibre length, pith content and moisture.

This improved product consistency without increasing machine power or changing to a larger model.

Maintenance Focuses on Clean Material and Ring-Die Condition

The maintenance team routinely checks feeder condition, rollers, ring die, bearings and accumulated fibre around the machine.

Wear life is not expressed as one guaranteed number of tonnes.

Clean coir residue behaves differently from material contaminated with sand or grit, so actual die and roller life depends heavily on raw-material control.

Changes in motor load, output, pellet surface and fines are used as early indicators that adjustment or maintenance may be required.

Shipping from Qingdao to Colombo

The two MZLH350 biomass pellet machine units were exported from Qingdao Port in China to Colombo Port, Sri Lanka’s principal container gateway.

From there, the equipment was delivered to the Gampaha-area processing facility.

RICHI supplied machine dimensions, electrical information, installation interfaces, maintenance-clearance requirements and feeder/discharge details before shipment.

The customer could therefore prepare the pelletizing area while the equipment was in transit.

Coconut Husk Pellet Machine in Sri Lanka for Coir Bedding Production

This coconut husk pellet machine in Sri Lanka project is based on a realistic division of value within the country’s coconut industry.

The customer does not grind high-quality coir fibre unnecessarily and does not attempt to feed whole fresh husks into an MZLH350. Valuable fibre remains in established coir markets, while short fibre, pith and suitable husk-processing residues are prepared and densified into 8 mm animal-bedding pellets.

Two MZLH350 machines are installed, each with a 37 kW main motor, 2.2 kW arch-breaking feeder, 0.75 kW forced feeder and 350 mm ring die. Reference output is approximately 0.3–0.5 T/H per machine, depending on fibre blend, moisture, particle condition, die configuration and required pellet durability.

For another customer evaluating a coconut husk pellet machine in Sri Lanka, RICHI Machinery would first determine whether the available material is whole husk, long coir fibre, short fibre, coir pith, husk chips or a mixed processing residue. The next questions are annual usable tonnage, moisture, fibre length, sand contamination, existing fibre-opening equipment, target pellet diameter, bedding performance requirements, cooling and screening capacity, export packaging and electrical supply.

That raw-material distinction decides the process. A customer producing premium long coir fibre needs a different solution from a processor trying to densify short fibre and pith into bedding pellets, even though both may casually describe their material as “coconut husk.”