Biomass Briquette Production from Jatropha

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to study the production of biomass briquette by extrusion techniqueand to investigate its properties in terms of heating value and compressive strength. Raw materials used in thiswork were the trunk and the branch of Jatropha mixed with the solid waste (product) from postharvest such as ricehusk, bagasse, cassava shell and corncob. The glutinous mass used as the binder was made from cassava flour(powder) and molasses. Before mixing with the binder, the raw material was grinded to less than 3 mm. To obtainthe high quality of briquette, the raw materials were mixed with the binders at the various ratios. The experimentalresults showed that the heating value increased with an increase in the Jatropha ratio. At the same mixture ratio,the heating value of the briquette from the cassava flour binder was slightly higher than that of the molasses whilethe compressive strength of the briquette from the cassava flour binder was lower than that of the molasses.However, the heating value and the compressive strength of the briquette from both blinders were quite high forproducing biomass briquette. In addition, the heating value was in the range of 11.54 3 15.36 MJ/kg and thecompressive strength was in the range of 0.46-2.46 MPa.