Briquette Making Using Waste Biomass and Analysis of Its Properties

Dry leaves, grass, agricultural waste such as straw, rice husk, plant stalks are the types of biomass that are widely available in the rural areas. They have low bulk density and cannot give controlled flame while burning, so they cannot be used as fuel. This loose biomass gives handling problems while transporting them elsewhere and this biomass, if not composted properly, is nothing but a waste. Therefore, they are mostly burnt in the open fields creating unnecessary pollution. Briquetting can be seen as a viable method to solve this issue as it is a simple and cost-effective technology. This paper presents a technique of preparing a raw biomass into a usable biomass briquette fuel. Briquettes were made from Eleusine indica grass and sawdust bonded with gelatinized taro tubers. Briquette samples were prepared using low-power screw press machine. The first sample consisted of 3:1 grass and sawdust ratio; the second sample consisted of 1:1 grass and sawdust ratio. In both the samples, 40% of taro (Colocasia esculenta) tuber in weight basis was gelatinized and added. Both the prepared samples were tested for their physical and thermal properties. The result showed that the test sample 1 showed a higher calorific value of 15.539 MJ/Kg compared to sample 2 having a calorific value of 14.683 MJ/Kg. The bulk density was found to be 0.234gm/cm³ and 0.233gm/cm³ for sample 1 and 2, respectively.