Effect of Applied Pressure and Binder Proportion on the Fuel Properties of Holey Bio-Briquettes

In this study, the manual hydraulic press was designed to prepare the holey briquettes from selected biomass wastes. Each biomass was sun dried and milled into the smaller particle size before mixing with 20wt% of palm fiber, and molasse was used as the binder. The effects of applied pressure levels of 40, 50, 60 and 70 kg/cm2 and of the binder amount on the density, calorific heating value and burning rate of the prepared briquettes were investigated. Results showed that briquettes have the average inside diameter, average outside diameter and height of 12, 38 and 25-30 mm, respectively. The density of the briquettes increased with the increasing of applied pressure, was in the range of 260-416 kg/m3. The most densified briquettes were obtained from bamboo sawdust at the use of 20wt% molasse and pressure of 70 kg/cm2. The heating value of bamboo briquette reached upto 21.26 MJ/kg, and rubber wood residue briquette obtained the slowest burning rate of 2.01 g/min.