Physical characterization of briquettes produced from paper pulp and Mesua ferrea mixtures

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the physical and thermal characteristics of briquettes made from a mixture of paper pulp and Mesua ferrea leaves. Paper pulp/ground Mesua ferrea leaves mixtures prepared were of 80–20%, 60–40%, 50–50% ratio and 100–0% mixture which served as a reference briquette. The mixtures were densified at a room temperature of 28 °C under three different compression pressures; 5.1, 10.2, and 15.3 MPa. The characteristics of the briquette samples were assessed in terms of moisture content, density, shatter index and calorific value. The findings revealed the following range of values for all samples; moisture content (5.55–12.33%), density (0.24–0.37 g/cm3), shatter index (79.18–99.9%), and calorific values (15.77–18.99 MJ/kg). Specifically, 100–0% briquettes yielded the highest moisture content and the lowest calorific value as expected. In contrast, the 50–50% briquettes yielded the lowest moisture content, highest calorific value and lowest shatter index. The quality of these briquettes was found to be comparable to biomass briquettes produced from other agricultural waste. The novel contribution of this study was the use of garden waste to develop briquettes with appropriate physical and thermal qualities that could serve as alternate fuel sources for local applications.