Briquetting process optimization of poultry litter and urban wood waste

Abstract

Urban wood waste and poultry litter are solid wastes with potential for energy generation. A well-modeled briquetting process can be used to find an ideal relationship between the control and response variables. This study aimed to investigate the energy potential of biomass and the relationship between the following input variables: compression load (L), compaction time (T), granulometry (G), and the proportion of poultry litter mass and urban wood waste (Pl, 0:100; 25:75; 50:50; 75:25; 100:0) on the response variables, that is, higher heating value (HHV), density (D), and moisture content (MC) of the briquettes. The modeling process was based on central composite design of the response surface methodology. Multi-objective optimization of the process was performed using the normalized global criterion method. From the experimental results, the highest HHV obtained was equal to 24.18 MJ/kg, the highest D found was 1252.02 kg/m³ and the lowest MC was 9.05 %. Using the optimization method, the ideal Pl is 50:50, with G of 30 mesh, with L of 10 t being applied, with T of 194 s. Under these conditions, it is expected to achieve a briquette with an HHV of 22.75 MJ/kg, D of 1180.4 kg/m³, and MC of 9.16 %.