Water resistance characteristics of carbonized rice husk bio-briquette with Eichhornia crassipes as a binder.

The biomass briquet in this research was intended to provide a fuel alternative with better combustion characteristics to reduce household air pollution (HAP) in remote communities. This article presented the effect of mixture ratio and densification pressure on the water resistance characteristics of a bio-briquette composed of carbonized rice husk (CRH) bound by Eichhornia crassipes (EC). The CRH and EC mass ratios are 80/20 (CRH80/EC20) and 20/80 (CRH20/EC80). The bio-briquettes were fabricated using a hydraulic press machine at 25 and 50 MPa pressure. The water resistance analysis was performed according to the ASTM D779-03 standard. The result shows that the highest water resistance was observed at 80CRH/20EC at a densification pressure of 50 MPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]