The average pellet diameter was measured using an EVO LS10 scanning electron microscope (Carl Zeiss; Cambridge, United Kingdom). Samples were gold-coated by Q150R sputter coater (Quorum Technologies Ltd, East Sussex, UK). The process was carried out in an argon atmosphere, at 20 mA for 1 min and involved applying 3–10 KV excitation electron energy [30 (link)]. Sieve analysis study was performed for pellet size distribution. To perform the analysis, the pellets were passed through stacks of sieves of 600, 800, 1000, 1250, 1600, 1700 and 2000 μm [31 (link)]. A minimum of three replicates was considered for each sample.
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