Development and experimental characterization of energy efficient poultry litter & plant weeds based briquettes (PLPWBB) by comparing with rice husk briquettes

Abstract

Briquettes are used as a substitute for conventional energy sources nowadays in industrial, household & in waste to energy electricity generation purposes. Traditional known briquettes ingredients like cow dung, straw, sugarcane bagasse, maize stalk, coconut husks, leaves, groundnut shells and rice husk are used for briquettes manufacturing. This paper provides the significant information of manufacturing of briquettes using poultry litter & plant weeds as an ingredient for briquettes manufacturing instead of using traditional ingredients & compare with rice husk briquettes which are most commonly used briquette in the agricultural sector for energy generation. In this paper investigations were carried out on the physical, proximate and ultimate analysis of poultry litter & plant weed mixed briquette produced from a block mould briquetting machine, characterization was carried out according to established standards, physical properties were determined by direct measurements. The physical properties investigation indicate height of briquette (0.21 m), diameter of briquette (0.08 m), mass of briquette (1.3 kg), volume of briquette (0.001 m3), maximum density (1300 kg/m3), relaxed density (700 kg/m3), density ratio (0.53), relaxation ratio (1.85), bulk density (355.27 g/cm3), colour (black & brown), texture (rough). The characterization includes proximate & ultimate analysis which results: Moisture (9.22%), Ash content (9.09%), Volatile matter (24.30%), fixed Carbon (10.29%), gross calorific value (18.42 MJ/kg), Sulphur (0.70%), Nitrogen (0.85%), above results indicates low moisture content, ash content than rice husk briquettes and satisfactory percentage of volatile matter & calorific value which justifies its better viability or as a better replacement for rice husk briquettes & also for gasification. Due to improved density poultry weed, mixed briquettes are also better suitable for storage having good shelf life & fewer transportation breakages. Thermo-gravimetric Analyzer (TGA) analysis indicates the thermal decomposition of the PLPWBB in three stages with maximum weight loss of 59.96% at the second stage at a temperature range 150–600 °C with a total weight loss of 81.67% on completion.