A composting garbage disposal for under sink use in a kitchen which separates food waste items into liquid and solid components. The liquid components are directed to a standard sewer or septic system. The solid components are directed to a removable storage bin. The food waste items are separated by use of a motor driven auger member which is in close proximity to the inside wall of a screened cup so that the liquid exits the screened portion of the cup and the solid exits through an aperture in the floor of the cup. A microprocessor circuit senses the strain on the drive motor and if the strain becomes excessive, automatically reverses the direction of the shaft and auger thereby releasing excess food waste that is causing the excess strain.

A device according to various embodiments for drying wet grain can include a first screw configured to receive wet grain. A second screw receives the wet grain from the first screw. At least one mechanism is included within at least one of the first screw and the second screw to vaporize water content in the wet grain.

A variable compression screw press includes a volume displacing member which overlies the pressure housing feed flight of the screw press. In one embodiment, the volume displacing member is a shroud which may be moved in and out of the intake hopper as desired, without having to disassemble the press. In a second embodiment, the volume displacing member is a hinged gate which can be adjusted to overlie more or less of the pressure housing feed flight. In a third embodiment which may be used in cooperation with either first or second embodiment, the volume within the pressure housing feed flight is partly occupied by block elements removably mounted to the screw flighting of the pressure housing feed flight.

A screw press for separating liquid from a solid-liquid mixture includes a casing having inlet and outlet sections, and a filter section there between. The filter section includes an axially extending stack of coplanar filtration plates defining a core passage for receiving a screw configured to convey the solid-liquid mixture from the inlet section to the outlet section while compressing and dewatering the solid-liquid mixture by forcing at least part of the liquid content of the mixture to be expelled out of the casing through inter-plate gaps defined between each pair of adjacent filtration plates. The filtration plates are fixed relative to one another and clamped in direct intimate face-to-face contact by a clamping assembly operable for applying a predetermined axially clamping pressure substantially uniformly about the core passage. The inter-plate gaps are controlled by the surface roughness of the plates and the clamping pressure.