Factors Influencing the Performance of Coal Briquettes

Abstract

The continuous supply of energy resources is essential for the development of any nation. The economic and social life of any nation depends enormously on the energy resources. Over the past few years the energy crisis is becoming a major issue in developing countries as Pakistan. Oil, Natural gas and hydro are the three major energy resources of the Pakistan. These conventional energy resources were being exploited in the past leading to an issue of energy crisis in the country. Replacing expensive imported energy resources with coal briquettes made from indigenous coal reserves can provide fuel for the local residential and commercial markets. Coal briquettes formation is a process to convert coal powder into a specific shape with the help of a binder. An external force is applied to the coal binder mixture to make a firm body of desired shape. The briquettes formed this way will not disintegrate under normal conditions of transportation and use. Coal briquettes are preferred over raw coal because they are a smokeless, strong and low emissive fuel that can be used in numerous domestic and commercial applications. The performance of coal briquettes formed is dependent largely upon its thermal properties and the mechanical strength. Nowadays an environmentally safe briquettes formation process is also included in the performance criteria of coal briquettes. The mechanical strength of coal briquettes affects its storage and transportation to the intended market. The studies on coal briquettes show that coal briquettes quality depends on many factors like the type of binder, quantity of binder, grade of coal, moisture level, coal particle size and its distribution etc. These factors along with some of the factors as time of compaction, compaction temperature, and compaction pressure and moisture level are discussed in this paper to evaluate the performance of briquetting technology in future.doi:10.14456/WJST.2014.52