The Potential of Spent Bleaching Earth In Charcoal Briquettes as Energy Source

Rice husk is the outermost part of the rice seed which is a hard layer and a waste material from rice milling. Rice husk includes biomass that can be exploited for various requirements such as industrial raw materials as well as energy sources or fuel but only a small group of people use it. This research is conducted utilizing the rice husk as an alternative fuel by making it as a charcoal briquette. To make the treatment easy, firstly the rice husk biomass was converted into charcoal powder by carbonization method using two kinds of furnace which have different heating behavior. The best carbonization results are obtained from the furnace, which has a constant temperature heating behavior. The process of making briquettes is prepared by adding tapioca starch of 6% concentration by weight as charcoal adhesive and then printed with the aid of pressing tools using loads at 1,000 kg/cm2. The resulting briquette has a calorific value about 3.126 cal/g, mass density is 0.86 g/cm3 and compressive strength is about 2.02 kg/cm2, so that the bio-briquette of charcoal produced can be used as alternative energy to replace the fossil fuel for domestic or household purposes.

A two-year field experiment was conducted to evaluate residual and cumulative effects of rice husk charcoal (RC) application on physicochemical soil properties and rice productivity in an Andosol paddy field. Three RC application rates, 10, 20, and 40 Mg ha−1, one rice husk (RH) application rate of 20 Mg ha−1, and a control with no application of RC or RH were laid out in the first year of the experiment. In the second year, the experimental plot was divided into halves: one with the same application rates as in the first year (successive applications) and the other without additional RC or RH (single application). Significant impacts of RC application were observed from the first year on soil bulk density, porosity, carbon (C) content, and carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio. Soil C content was directly proportional to the amount of RC application over the 2 years showing that the C derived from RC was markedly recalcitrant in soil compared to that from RH. The increased C was present not only in the plow layer but also spread over the top 20 cm of paddy field. As compared to the control, successive RC applications at 20 Mg ha–1 increased soil C contents by 12.7 g kg–1 and 14.4 g kg–1 in the 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm layers after two rice seasons, respectively. Successive RC applications significantly increased straw weight and panicle number, partly due to the increased Si uptake by rice plants. However, grain yield did not significantly differ among the treatments because RC application decreased 1000-grain weight. We speculate that the reduction in 1000-grain weight may be due to immobilization of available N at the reproductive stage under high soil C/N ratio conditions. This suggests the need for N fertilizer top-dressing to obtain the potential yield in the RC-applied fields. Furthermore, the diminishing residual effects of RC application on the rice growth and yield parameters in the second season suggest that successive, or applications at an interval of 2–3 years, would be required to maintain the higher Si deposits in plants, thereby sustaining rice productivity.

Rice husk (Oriza sativa L.) was studied in three products, namely charcoal briquettes, activated charcoal and liquid smoke. Aims to know and analyze the characteristics of the three products. Making charcoal briquettes through the forming process of rice husk charcoal powder then tested for density, moisture content, compressive strength, volatile matter, ash content, fixed carbon content, and heating value. Rice husk charcoal powder activated by soaking for 5 hours in 5% hydrochloric acid (HCl) then tested for its adsorption on spills of used lubricant. Liquid smoke from rice husk is obtained by pyrolysis process and multilevel purification and then the yield, pH value, specific gravity, and color are measured. Rice husk charcoal briquettes had the following values: density 0,601 g/cm3, moisture content 5,596%, compressive strength 8,665 kg/cm2, volatile matter content 25%, ash content 31,8%, fixed carbon content 43,2% and heating value 4.477 cal/g. Rice husk activated charcoal has an adsorption capacity of used lubricants up to 3,27 times stronger than activated charcoal with a fixed carbon content of 44,5%. Grade 3 rice husk liquid smoke has a yield value of 8,40%; pH 4,27; specific gravity 0,997; and black color. Grade 2 has a yield value of 5,20%; pH 3,41; specific gravity 1,003; and light brown. Grade 1 has a yield value of 3,87%; pH 3,24; specific gravity 0,997; and clear white color

Currently fossil fuel often use for fulfilment of energy demand of the world. With the rising demand of energy, fossil fuel is at the risk of depletion within 40-50 years. With the environmental and health effects of burning fossil fuel, world is shifting to renewable energy sources. Hydro power, solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, biomass energy, dendro power, wave energy etc are considered as renewable energy sources which used all around the world including Sri Lanka. With reference to biomass all materials derived from living organisms, or recently living organisms (plants and animals) are considered as biomass such as rice husk, straw, paddy bran, wood chips, saw dust, pruned branches, leaves animal waste. This research was conducted with the objectives of to determine the suitable mixing ratio of binders with the tea fibrous waste and to test the physical properties of densified biomass. The process of compaction of residues into a product of higher bulk density than the original raw material is known as densification. Various types of binders can be used in densification process to enhance the ability of binding. Wheat flour and paper pulp used as binding agents with different mixing ratio of 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, 10% and 12.5% (w/w) of each binder with 40 ml water and 40 g of tea fibrous material as base material. Considering the fuel quality, densification increases the calorific value and bulk density, densified biomass fuel with wheat flour binder shows a higher compressive strength (0.4246 MPa to 0.4564 MPa) and paper pulp binder has highest tensile strength. Highest calorific value, 22.65MJ/kg observed in 2.5% of wheat binder though it doesn’t have favourable tensile strength value (10.02 MPa). Densified biomass, 7.5% of wheat binder has favourable calorific value 21.29 MJ/kg, compressive strength 0.4529 MPa and tensile strength 13.06 MPa. Considering paper pulp binder, 10% of paper pulp binder has favourable tensile strength 15.83 MPa, Calorific value 21.01 MJ/kg and compressive strength 0.4228 MPa. According to ranking index method, 7.5% of wheat binder and 10% of Paper pulp binder are most appropriate to produce biomass fuel as alternative to the fuel wood. Keywords: Calorific value, Compressive strength, Densification, Tensile strength

This study is an investigation into the characterization of commercial activated charcoal, sawdust charcoal and rice husk charcoal as adsorbents for water treatment. The ground rice husk and waste sawdust collected, were sieved to obtain a nominal size of 1mm, washed and oven-dried for 12hours. The two materials were pyrolysized in a furnace for 30minutes, and the chars produced were later air-dried. The three charcoals (sawdust charcoal, rice husk charcoal, and the activated charcoal purchased from the market) were all subjected to X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis in order to characterize the filter materials. The SEM analysis showed that the three materials developed more pores, which is a property of an adsorbent. Likewise, the XRF and EDX analyses confirm that all the three adsorbents possess larger proportion of Silica, Carbon and Oxygen.

The area of rice fields in Indonesia decreased every year. Acid sulfate soil, which was sub-marginal land, had the potential to be converted into rice fields, but it needed improvement, one of which was by using organic materials as ameliorants. This research aimed to obtain the best composition of applying rice harvest residue as an ameliorant on acid sulfate soil in improving the growth and yield of rice. The research was conducted at the greenhouse of Panca Bhakti University Pontianak from January to April 2022. This study used a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The treatments consisted of: p0: Control, p1: Rice straw = 40 gr/polybag, p2: Rice husk = 40 gr/polybag, p3: Rice husk charcoal = 40 gr/polybag, p4: Rice husk ash = 40 gr/polybag, p5: Rice straw + rice husk, p6: Rice straw + rice husk charcoal, p7: Rice straw + rice husk ash, p8: Rice husk + rice husk charcoal, p9: Rice husk + rice husk ash, p10: Rice husk charcoal + rice husk ash, with each material weighing 20 gr/polybag. The observation variables were plant height, number of tillers, number of productive tillers, dry weight of grains per hill, and 100-grain weight. Analysis of variance used F-test and continued with Least Significant Difference (LSD) test at the 5% level. The application of rice harvest residue had a better effect on the growth and yield of rice than the treatment without the application of rice harvest residue. Treatment p6 had the best effect on the dry weight of grains per hill, which was 65.67 grams. Keywords: Acidic Sulfate Soils, Ameliorant, Rice, Rice husk charcoal, Straw

Production of sustainable and renewable energy source from locally available biomass feedstock’s provides great opportunities to achieve sustainable growth and development in economic, social and environmental aspects for all nations across the globe. This study focused on production and characterization of charcoal briquettes from forest biomasses such as, Oxytenanthera abyssinica, Arundinaria alpina, Acacia mellifera and Prosopis juliflora, which were collected from different regions of Ethiopia (Amhara, Oromia and Somali). The experiment was conducted to determine moisture content (MC), volatile matter (VM), ash content (AC), calorific value (CV), fixed carbon (FC) and sulfur content (SC). The results were analyzed by using Statistical Analysis System (SAS) software. The analysis indicated that the effect of parameters considered in the experiment (i.e. Temperature, Binder ratio, Number of press and pressure) on the four species type and sample types were significant at level of probability, P = 0.0001. Maximum amount of MC was recorded for P. juliflora samples (i.e. Sawdust, Charcoal and Briquette) with respective values of 7.95%, 6.70 % and 6.88 %. The minimum amount of moisture was recorded on A. alpina’s Sawdust with value of 5 % and A. mellifera Charcoal with value of 5.29 %. Moreover, the least amount of VM (17.31 %) was found in biomass briquettes produced from A. alpina species and have better fuel quality in comparison with the other species. The maximum CV was recorded on Densified Biomass Briquette (DBB) obtained from A. alpina and P. juliflora with the values of 7106.8 cal/gm and 6755.6 cal/gm, respectively. The study suggested that charcoal briquette produced from selected species exhibits good fuel characteristics (i.e. higher CV, less MC, and high level of FC, and low SC) in compliance with the international acceptable standard. Therefore, the obtained research output in the study encourages proper utilization of the biomass feedstock’s for consumers and insure healthier environment via the supply of renewable source of energy

The potential of cashew nut shell waste in charcoal briquettes after producing cashew nut shell liquid through cold extraction

In this study, the development of briquettes from agricultural waste mainly rice and maize husk is presented. A 0.12 kg of each sample with a combination ratio of 1:1 was used in the buildup. The results obtained shows that, rice husk, maize husk and the combination of rice and maize husk have calorific value of 15.27 kJ/kg, 17.13 kJ/kg and 16.20 kJ/kg, moisture contents of 78.8 %, 86.8 % and 79.1 %, ash contents of 39.74 %, 18.07 % and 13.39 % and densities of 1084.3 kg/m3, 1011.5 kg/m3 and 1012.4 kg/m3 respectively. The research shows that briquette made from maize husk has the highest calorific value that can meet domestic use as an alternative fuel compared to briquttes from rice husk and the combination of rice and maize husk.

Chemical and physical properties of Rice Husk as a potential energy resource were analyzed by means Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS). Rice husk is heated with varied temperature of 250°C, 350°C, 450°C and 30, 60, 90 minutes respectively combine with time variation. The results show that the calorific value decreases whenever the temperature and time increase. The heating time of 30 minutes at 250 °C of temperature gives calorific value of 10.4 MJ/Kg. While at the 450°C of temperature, the calorific value decrease to 4.7 MJ/Kg. The EDS shows that the time of heating is an important parameter where carbon and nitrogen were decreasing with the increment of the heating time while the oxygen increase when the heating time increase. The XRD shows that the broad (002) reflections between 20° and 30° indicate carbon disordered with small domains of coherent and parallel stacking of the graphene sheets, which consists of surface morphology from SEM. FTIR shows that the O-H stretching pronounced at around 3452 cm−1 and 3412 cm−1 and pronounced clearly at the highest temperature. The aromatic group from lignin gives rise to C=C asymmetric stretching at cm−1 as a G band corresponds to the sp2-hybradization bonding of carbon atoms and C-H bending modes at 2927 at 796 cm−1. This results of the characteristic of chemical and physical properties of the rice husk examination provide the prominent source of useful energy that can eventually replace the fossil fuel.

ABSTRACTExperiments on pelletization of pre-treated rice (Oryza sativa) husk grinds were performed to study the effect of pretreatment processes on compression characteristics and quality of rice husk pellets. Pre-treatment of rice husk was carried out by microwave-heated sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) solutions. During the pre-treatment process, rice husks were immersed in distilled water, NaOH or Ca(OH)2 solutions (1% and 2% w/v) and heated using microwaves at power levels of 603 W and 713 W. Measured quantity of pre-treated rice husks were compressed at 4000 N force in a plunger-die system maintained at 95⁰C. Compression and relaxation test data were recorded and specific energy was calculated. Pellet quality parameters such as tensile strength, durability and bulk density were determined. Chemical composition, gross calorific value, bulk density and particle density of untreated and pretreated rice husk were measured. Chemical analysis results confirm that the microwave exposure with alkali pre-treatments significantly affected the chemical composition of rice husks which subsequently enhanced the quality of pellets. The results concluded that the sodium hydroxide with microwave-treated rice husk samples have shown excellent compression characteristics and delivered high-quality pellets when compared to all other treated and untreated samples tested. Microwaves exhibit positive impacts on the quality of pellets along with NaOH treatments in the production of rice husk pellets.

The continuous carbonisation of rice husk on the gasifier for high yield charcoal production

The increasing energy needs must be balanced with the availability of the right energy, namely by efforts to use new and renewable energy sources (NRE). Bio-pellets are a renewable alternative energy source with great potential in Indonesia. This study made bio-pellets into two compositions with the raw materials used: coconut coir waste, rice husks, and sawdust. The composition of bio-pellet A was made in a ratio of 1:1:1, and the composition of bio-pellet B was made in a ratio of 1:0,5:0,5. This study aimed to determine whether there is a significant difference between the two bio-pellet compositions' calorific value and the raw materials' composition that can produce the best quality bio-pellet. The method used in this study is the hypothesis test of the difference between the two averages. The hypothesis test results indicated a significant difference between bio-pellet composition A's average calorific value and B. Thus, the difference in the ratio of the raw materials composition influences the calorific value of the resulting bio-pellet. The test results showed that the bio-pellets with the best quality are bio-pellet composition A with a density value of 1.51 g/cm3, water content of 9.9%, ash content of 13.65%, a content of volatile matter of 61.625%, fixed carbon content of 14,825%, total Sulphur content of 0.05%, and calorific value of 3458.5 kcal/kg.

This research aims to apply the principles of Superior Waste Management by processing rice husks into products that are economically valuable and environmentally friendly, such as charcoal briquettes and biochar. This research was conducted in Senaning Village, Jambi, with an approach that involved community participation through training. The research results show that briquettes made from rice husks have high calorific value and low water content, making them very suitable for use as an alternative fuel source. Apart from that, the biochar produced is also able to improve soil quality and store carbon, which provides important benefits for the agricultural sector and reduces the impact of climate change. This program not only helps reduce pollution, but also opens up additional economic opportunities for the community

The world’s energy consumption continues to increase from year to year. On the other side, the reserve of energy source, especially energy from fossil fuels are diminishing. To anticipate energy shortage or even energy crisis, a study to find an alternative of energy sources needs to be done. Agricultural wastes biomass is very interesting to study because of abundantly available but not fully utilized yet.Agricultural waste biomass can be made more useful as fuel by of carbonizing and briquetting process. Agricultural wastes that were used in this study i.e. corn cob (CC), corn stalk (CS), soybean shell and stalk (SSS), peanut shell (PS), rice husk (RH) and rice straw (RS).The results of this study showed that many kinds of agricultural waste had different heating value. Carbonizing could increase the heating value of six agricultural wastes. Raw material and charcoal of corn cob have the highest heating value, while raw material and charcoal of rice husk has the lowest. From combustion testing, it was found that the briquette of soybean shell and stalk charcoal has the highest flue gas temperature, while rice husks charcoal briquette had the lowest. Combustion of cord cob charcoal briquette produced less of ash residue than others, while combustion of rice husk charcoal produces the most ash.