Determination of Compresive Strength and Combustibility Potentials of Coal And Biomass Briquettes

Abstract

Investigation on the compressive strength and combustibility proprieties of coal char and Biomass waste was carried out on five sets of briquette produced from three different sources of materials using a cassava starch as a binder, which were compacted in a wooden bar mould of length 2x2 cm³ using El-burden berg compacting machine with model No El-31-34010 Using a tri-axial comprehensive machine, the comprehensive strength of the briquettes was determined as 611, 546.94, 281.26 928.29 and 584.64KN/m² units for rice husk, rice husk/coal char blend, sawdust, sawdust/coal char blend, and coal char briquettes respectively. A comparative water boiling test of the briquettes and firewood was carried out. 1kg of each set of briquettes and firewood was weighed. Rice husk briquette boiled 1.5 litres of water in 37 minutes, while firewood boiled the same quantity of water in 38 minutes 30 seconds. Sawdust briquette boiled that water in 25 minutes, while sawdust/coal char blend boiled the water in 20 minutes; coal char briquette boiled the water in 15 minutes 30 seconds. The results obtained revealed that such briquettes were of appreciable strength and could not crumble during combustion; they also resist abrasion during transportation and help keep the environment clean.