Production and characterization of charcoal briquettes from sesame stalks as an alternative energy source

Abstract

Using of agricultural residues for briquette production attracts the attention of many researchers to overcome the problems related to the usage of fossil fuels as an energy source. This study focused on the production of briquettes from sesame stalks as an alternative fuel in Cement industries. The briquettes were produced from carbonized sesame stalks using paper waste, cow dung, and a mixture of cow dung and paper waste binders. The data analysis of the charcoal briquettes was carried out using two-way ANOVA without replication using Microsoft Excel. The binder ratio and binder types have a significant effect on the density and shatter resistance. Briquettes made using carbonized sesame stalks have the highest density of 1.133 g/cm³ at 5% of cow dung binder. The highest shatter resistance having a value of 91.00% was found in carbonized briquette prepared using 25% cow dung binder. Six briquettes were selected for proximate and calorific value analysis. The highest heating value of the produced briquettes was 4794.38 kcal/kg at 5% of cow dung binder, which has moisture, ash, fixed carbon, and volatile matter of 6.54, 14, 30.7, and 48.76% respectively. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur contents of a briquette, which has the highest heating value, were recorded at 46.34, 2.50, 50.89, 0.27, and 0.00% respectively. Production of a briquette from carbonized sesame stalks using 5% cow dung binder is suitable from economic and environmental points of view.