ASSESSMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE OF A DISC ACTUATED BRIQUETTE PRODUCTION MACHINE DEVELOPED AT THE NATIONAL CEREALS RESEARCH INSTITUTE, BADEGGI

Abstract

A briquetting machine to utilize agricultural waste products as raw material was designed, fabricated and tested. The machine was developed in order to be utilized by cottage factories to produce briquettes for both domestic and industrial use as source of heat energy. The machine mainly comprised of a hopper, compaction chamber, compression lever mechanism and the main frame. The machine was tested by using it to produce briquettes from sugarcane bagasse produced directly from a cane juice expeller, rice husk and sawdust under the same conditions of binder concentrations at different levels. The samples were analyzed for combustion properties (volatile matter, ash content, fixed carbon and heating value), Bulk density and compressive strengths. Result showed that Sugarcane bagasse and rice husks had higher volatile matter and lower fixed carbon compared to sawdust. The volatile matter and fixed carbon were 80% and 12% for sugarcane bagasse briquette and 79.8% volatile matter and 11.2% fixed carbon for rice husk at 10% binder concentration. The bulk density, 2.1kg/m3 of the bagasse briquettes was less than that of the rice husk and sawdust briquettes which were 3.6kg/m3 and 3.2kg/m3 respectively at 10% binder concentration. The compressive strength of all the briquettes were almost the same with the highest values ranging from 0.9KN/m2 (for sugarcane bagasse briquette) to 1.2KN/m2 for rice husk briquette at 40% binder concentration. The machine was found suitable to be used in producing briquettes from sugarcane bagasse since it had higher volatile matter and lower fixed carbon which are good quality characteristics required from combustible materials meant for the production of heat energy for both domestic and industrial uses.