Abstract
Recently, the global population has increased sharply, unfortunately, the availability of fossil fuel resources has significantly decreased. This phenomenon has become an attractive issue for many researchers in the world so that various studies in the context of finding renewable energy are developing continuously. Relating to this challenge, this research has been part of scientific work in the context of preparing an energy briquette employing palm oil stems and glycerol crude of biodiesel byproducts as inexpensive and green materials easily found in the Riau province, Indonesia. Technically, the palm oil stems are used for the production of charcoal particles and the glycerol crude as an adhesive compound in the production of energy briquettes. The heating value of palm oil stem is 17,180 kJ/kg, which can be increased to an even higher value through a carbonization process followed by a densification process so that it can be used as a potential matrix to produce energy briquettes. In detail, this study was designed to find out several parameters including the effect of sieve sizes consisting of 60, 80, and 100 mesh, respectively, which are used for the preparation of charcoal particles as the main matrix for the manufacture of the briquettes; the effect of charcoal-adhesive ratios (wt) of 60:40, 70:30, and 80:20; and the effect of varied pressures of 100, 110, and 120 kg/cm2 on the briquette quality. The quality of the obtained briquettes is analyzed through the observation of important properties which involve the heating value and the compressive strength using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The results showed that the produced briquettes had an optimum heating value of 30,670 kJ/kg, while their loaded charcoal particles resulted from the mesh sieve of 80, in which there was a charcoal loading of 53 g and it pressed at 93.1821 bar, whereas, the compressive strength value of the briquette was 100,608 kg/cm2, which loaded charcoal particles from the mesh sieve of 100, the charcoal-adhesive ratio of 53:47 (wt) and the pressure of 93.1821 bar.
Highlights
Along with economic growth, population, regional development, and development from year to year, the need for energy fulfillment from all sectors is increased
The characteristics were evaluated at the Oleochemical Technology Laboratory at Universitas Riau except heating value and compressive strength which were evaluated at the Energy Conversion Laboratory at Universitas Riau
Briquette material produced successfully from palm stems and crude glycerol, in which its standard heating value of min. 21,000 kJ/kg has met with the standard heating value, the Indonesian
Summary
Population, regional development, and development from year to year, the need for energy fulfillment from all sectors is increased. Based on energy consumption released by the National Energy Board, it was proved that fuel consumption in 2009 increased rapidly by 18.1% in 5 years [1] This increasing energy consumption has directly impacted oil prices, which has resulted in unstable oil prices so that some industrial energy has been switched to coal, including the energy of several industrial companies existing in Indonesia. As a matter of fact, the high consumption of coal in many fields (industry, transportation, etc.) has faced the depletion of these fuel resources in maintaining energy sustainability for people. This can be understood because the coal cannot be reproduced naturally (non-renewable fossil fuel).
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