Energy Efficiency of Briquettes Derived from Three Agricultural Waste’s Charcoal Using Two Organic Binders

Abstract

Waste management could contribute significantly to reducing environmental degradation. Studies showed that briquetting provides with or without binder helps to manage wastes as energy fuels. However, the properties of many binders are not investigated extensively. This work investigated the effect of two organic binders’ low rate on energy efficiency of Briquettes produced from charcoals of Tender Coconut Husks (TCH), Palm Kernel Shells (PKS) and Corn Cobs (CC). Bombax Costatum calyx (B) and Cissus Repens barks (C) were used separately as binders to elaborate briquettes. The briquettes were compared based on their energy efficiency parameters with wood charcoal as control. Energy efficiency parameters such as water boiling time (WBT), mass of biomass used (MB), burning rate (BR), temperature rise rate (TR) and maximum temperature in the furnace (Tmax) were measured from each biomass charcoal briquette and wood charcoal combustion. Water boiling test was applied to determine briquettes thermal properties. The results of WBT, BR, TR and Tmax were respectively within the ranges 3.4 - 12.3 min, 2.90 - 7.71 g/min, 4.63°C/s - 16.10°C/s and 623°C - 900°C. Corn Cobs charcoal briquettes with Bombax binder took the shortest time to boil water and also presented a high temperature rise rate and the highest maximum temperature. The lowest burning rates were obtained for Tender coconut husks charcoal briquettes with Cissus binder. They showed good material conservation for bombax bound briquettes. The results of our investigations showed that binders content increasing enhanced the thermomechanical stability and affected negatively the energy efficiency parameters of the studied briquettes.