Synthesis and Analysis of Biomass based briquettes prepared by blend of natural and inorganic binders as an alternate fuel

Abstract

Recent years it is found that the availability of conventional fuels like coal, lignite for domestic and industrial purposes is in scarce. The usage of these materials emits flue gases to the environment leading to air pollution. The cost of liquefied petroleum gas is very high recent years. Considering all the above said factors there is a need in developing a substitute called biomass briquettes with best properties for the conventional fuels which prevent air pollution, are less in cost and has maximum availability. The primary constituents of biomass briquettes consist of agricultural biomass residues, including sugarcane bagasse, maize stalk, straw, coconut shell and leaves, wood, groundnut shells, and rice husk. Additionally, sawdust and waste papers derived from municipal waste serve as binding agents in the briquette production process. In this research work waste bio-based materials having good range of calorific value like sawdust, rice husk, corn cobs and coconut shell were collected as raw materials for production process. Both organic binder algae and Inorganic binder Al2O3 were added to the carbonized bio-based materials to improve adhesive forces in briquettes.Al2O3 synthesized by sol gel method is a novel material used as an inorganic binder along with organic binders. Al2O3 synthesized is characterized by XRD to study the nature of the material. The obtained briquettes were analyzed for fixed carbon, volatile matter, moisture content, ash and calorific value. Briquettes synthesized showed good characteristics with respect to all the above said analysis. The calorific value which is known as heating value was around 26.67 MJ/kg. The value obtained was in the range of other fuels used and thus this biomass solid briquette finds its place as one of the best alternate source of fuel for domestic and industrial purposes. The comparative results obtained in this study give more insights in the encouragement, design and development of eco friendly bio-based briquettes in rural areas as an alternate fuel.