A Study of Fuel Briquettes Made From Residual Biomass in Rural Area

This paper presents the study of processing wood husk, cow dung, paper waste with and without binders into biomass briquettes for heating purposes. Briquettes were produced by handmade mold using ingredients that were available in vicinity using little to no money. Briquettes are handy to use. They do not take too much to store and burn rate is extra stable and contained than loose biomass. This analysis focuses on to understand some of their combustion characteristics and the relationship to the briquette design and manufacture process. These results indicate that briquettes with sufficient physical and mechanical characteristics could be produced from all biomass available at room temperature with and without a binder but without binder it is more fragile. If fresh cow dung is used it works as binder and you hardly need any extra binder. This could enhance the existing technology for recycling agricultural residues such as wood husk, cow dung, millet straws etc especially in rural areas. The production process for converting all biomass ingredients to briquettes begins with harvesting, then chopping and lastly drying all done manually. This followed by two separate processes; carbonization and semi decomposition. The decision by the community to use any biomass as fuel depends on its abundance and not on cost or amount of heat generated, thus the choice of biomass as alternative energy could be based on its abundance and not its calorific value.