Development and Characterization ofAgro-AlliedRice Husks andGroundnut ShellWaste Briquettes

Abstract

Briquetting of agro-residues can alleviate some of the problems of energy shortage being encountered world-wide. The briquettes are essentially manufactured to provide cheap energy to the various sectors. Most importantly, to the domestic households that are finding it difficult to purchase the other sources of energy because of their cost. In this research the briquettes wereproduced in a briquetting screw press –BSP, using a manually operated piston and cylindrical shape Mould. The individual materials weremixed thoroughly in a ratio of rice husk: groundnut shell (RH:GS) as follows: 100:00; 70:30; 50:50;30:70; and 00:100.A fixed quantity of each mixture wereseparately hand-fed into a manually operated closed-end piston press to compact the briquettes. Thereafter, the briquettes wereejected and placed on drying racks and left in the sun for drying. The moisture content, ash content, volatile matter, fixed carbon, ignition time,flame propagation time, calorificvalue and water boiling test were investigated to determine the physical and thermal properties of the briquettes produced. The results of the investigation showedthat moisture content of the briquettes ranged from 3.96 –5.65%, the calorific value ranges from 130, 63.56–141, 62.87kJ/kg, the range of ash content is 6.10 -9.32 %, for fixed carbon is 7.67 -20.20 %, the ignition time ranges from 238-270sec and the rangesfor water boiling test time is 10.57m, –13.37m. These values satisfactorily comparewell with values obtained by other researchers in the literature. Therefore, the rice husk -groundnut shell briquettes are good alternative source of thermal energy for cooking. It is an economical and also an environmental friendly source of energy and waste disposal.