Design of hand tractor-trailed biogas sludge applicator and its performance on Indonesian dry land

A hand tractor trailed biogas sludge applicator that has small-medium capacity, light ground pressures, and low-cost investment for small size Indonesian farm was developed. It consist of major component, i.e. 8.5 HP hand tractor as traction source, 1000 l sludge container, 4 HP single cylinder internal combustion engine for pumping system, and two adjustable furrow opener-closer. The test was performed under static and actual field state on Indonesian dry land to evaluate its performance. The result obtained during the trial test concluded that the applicator functioned properly as there is no faulty function for each component. The prototype has 1000 liter capacity of sludge mixture container and good pumping performance. The actual field performance of prototype revealed that it has 0.227 ha/h of effective field capacity observed, good traction performance at prepared (tilled) dry land, and considerably low operational cost in terms of the fuel consumption.