Co-briquetting characteristics of cassava peel with sawdust at different torrefaction pretreatment conditions

Quality enhancement of fuel briquette from cornhusk and cassava peel blends for co‐firing in coal thermal plant

“…The FR and VI of the blends torrefied at 300 C falls within the standard range of values and could be co-fired with coal. Similar increase in FR and VI values for torrefied fuels was obtained in the work of Ohm et al 23 ; Conag et al 24,32 and Akogun et al 19,20 The CI is another important index that is used to assess the suitability of a briquette fuel for mixed firing in coal engines. 23 A fuel with CI values ranging from 12.56 to 23.03 MJ/kg is appropriate for combustion.…”

“…The moisture content (MC) of CP and CH were 12.57% and 8.89%, respectively, which fall within the range of 8% to 15% required to produce strong and crack free briquettes 6 . Characteristics of raw CH and CP with reference to the reviewed papers in Table 2 do not comply with current standards for solid fuel applications in coal engines 19,23,24 …”

“…Pre‐fired and pre‐weighed thin walled crucibles were filled up to 100 g of each feedstock (CH and CP) and weighed to the nearest 0.1 mg for the purpose of determining the effect of light, mild and severe temperature on each feedstock. The covered crucibles containing each of CH and CP residue were loaded into a furnace described by Akogun et al 19 until the desired temperature was achieved. The torrefaction schematic diagram was described in Figure 2.…”

“…The torrefied products was then reduced into the particle sizes less than 1.18 mm. This method of torrefaction was adopted from a related work on torrefaction of cassava peel and sawdust 19 . Appropriate moisture preconditioning was considered for enhanced particle bonding ability enabled through large contact area of the samples.…”

“…For example, Bazargan et al 18 produced pellets with high water penetration and impact resistance and good strength from torrefied biomass using water diluted soluble starch. Akogun et al 19,20 produced briquettes with good density, compressive strength, water penetration resistance and durability when they studied the effects of torrefaction temperature on some feedstock by the sprinkling of deionized water and the use of cassava starch as binder. Crawford et al 21 studied the flowability of corn stover due to physical pre-processing and they concluded that the wetted biomass gave enhanced compressibility.…”