Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences (JETEAS) 5(7): 78-81
Journal
of Emerging
Trends
in Engineering
and Applied
Sciences (JETEAS) 5(7): 78-81 (ISSN: 2141-7016)
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(ISSN: 2141-7016)
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COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DIFFERENT WASTE PRODUCT UTILIZATION FOR
FUEL BRIQUETTE
1
Adeyemo Y.A., 2Adeyeye, T.A., 1Okunlola, O.A, 3Bello, W.B. and 4Alamu, L. O.
1
Forest Technology Department, Oyo State College of Agriculture, Igboora
2
School of Bio-Environmental Engineering, Oyo State College of Agriculture, Igboora
3
Agricultural Technology Department, Oyo State College of Agriculture, Igboora
4
Crop and Environmental Protection Department,
LadokeAkintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria.
Corresponding Author: Adeyemo Y.A.,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Abstract
The study aimed at comparing different organic wastes for fuel briquette production. Treatments were (B1) Charcoal
dust + starch (100%), (B2) Charcoal dust + sawdust + starch (50%), (B3) Charcoal dust + starch (50%) and (B4)
Charcoal (control).The parameters considered were: time taken to boil water, average time taken to ignite and fully
ignited, time taken to burn into ash, ash content and flame characters. Results showed that the average time taken to boil
the same quantity of water (100 cl) revealed that B2 boiled faster than the other treatments. B2 & B4 ignited and burnt
faster than B1 & B3. Average time taken to burn to ashes revealed that B2 and B4 were shorter than other treatments.
The higher amount of ash contents of B1, B2 and B3 indicated they contained non-combustible materials than B4.
Smoke character, showed that B1and B3 has relatively no smoke, and B2 and B4, has little smoke respectively. The
result revealed that waste can be turned into briquette for energy use. The study discovered that time taken to boil water
were too long, meaning that the energy efficiency of briquette materials needed to be improved upon.
Keywords: energy crises, deforestation, wastes, briquette and sustainability
INTRODUCTION
In Nigerian, most rural dwellers depend solely on fuel
wood such as charcoal and fire wood for their energy
needs for the past decades as kerosene and cooking gas
are unaffordable and many times unavailable. In Togo,
fire wood and charcoal contribute more than 80% to the
total domestic energy requirement (Kokou, et al., 2009).
Also, most rural dwellers in tropical Africa consider
charcoal production as supplement to their traditional
agricultural occupation, coupled with the fact that
charcoal making provides a quick return on investment,
hence a source of income for the people (Ogundele and
Oladapo, 2001).
As the governments of industrialized countries are
currently experiencing energy crisis, Africa couple hers
with deforestation which has become a critical issue
because of input and extraction of forest tree species as
fuel wood and charcoal production. The source of fuel
woods and charcoal production extend progressively
from collecting dead wood to the logging of live trees, the
felling of trees, the loss of organic matter to the soil and
the uprooting of stumps and shrubs (FAO, 1978).
Africa suffered the second largest net loss in forests per
annum with Burundi having the second largest
deforestation rate in the world, followed by Togo and
Mauritania, as far as annual net loss is concerned,
hotspots include Sudan, Zambia, Tanzania, Nigeria and
DR Congo (ECORYS, 2010). As the demand for fuel
wood and crisis of energy continues, there is great
pressure on tropical forests which has resulted in rapidly
depleting forest cover, soil erosion, desertification and
reduction in soil fertility as nutrient leaching is increased
(Ogunkunle and Oladele, 2004; Trees for the future,
78
2008). Beside the loss of woodland and accompanied
change in potential terrestrial carbon sequestration and
eco-system benefit, it also facilitates climate change and
global warming. As fossil fuels threaten the global
climate change, the rate of deforestation is still high as
reported by the FAO, (2010) that around 13 million
hectares of forest were converted to other uses or lost
through natural causes each year in the last decade
compares with a revised figure of 16 million hectares per
year in the 1990s.
Furthermore, waste is becoming a menace to the
environment in both developing and developed countries
of the world. In Nigeria, the sawdust generated from
sawmills operation from lumber recovery have been
estimated to range between 3.32 % to 10.02 % (Omoniyi
and Fatoki, 2013). Also charcoal dust is becoming an
environmental pollutant during the processing, packaging
and transportation in developing countries.
Available wastes have not been fully utilized and
recycled to different forms like sawdust waste, cassava
peal waste and charcoal dust into briquette making in
Nigeria. The utilization of these various local wastes for
briquette making has helped as alternative sources of
energy by rural communities in some developing
countries like India, Uganda, and Kenya (Mary et al.,
2009; Shriamm, 2010).
Himraj, (1993) reported that the demand for fuel wood is
expected to have risen to about 213.4 x103 metric tonnes,
while the supply would have decreased to about 28.4 x10
metric tonnes by the year 2030. As charcoal production
and demand are increase in developing countries and
international market couple with the raw materials
Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences (JETEAS) 5(7): 78-81 (ISSN: 2141-7016)
(mainly trees or wood) that are readily available in
tropical region and climate change, a transition to
recycling of African waste for briquette production is
urgently needed in developing countries to balance the
current and future challenges, thereby promoting
sustainable environmental and forest resources as well as
human development.
The integration and utilization of various wastes for
briquette production will not only offer ample
opportunities for sustainable development but also play
vital roles in carbon storage and sequestration. This study
is therefore to compare energy efficiency of selected
available waste materials for briquette production.
Biomass briquette is a renewable source of energy and it
avoids adding fossil carbon to the atmosphere. Briquettes
can be in the peat or biomass. Peat briquette is common
type of solid fuel, largely replacing sods of raw peat as a
domestic fuel. These briquette consist of shredded peat
compressed to form a virtually smokeless, slow-burning
easily stored and transported fuel, they are also used to
quickly and easily light coal fire. While biomass briquette
are made from agriculture waste and are replacement for
fossil fuels such as oil or coal and can be used to heat
boiler in manufacturing plants.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The experiment was conducted at the Forestry
Technology Department, Oyo State College of
Agriculture, Igbo-ora. The materials used were locally
obtained from the study area. The materials used were
charcoal dust, saw dust, cassava starch, briquette binding
tools (VPC of 4cm by 10cm), stop watch, mixing
containers, stirrer, bamboo dry board, water, pot, and coal
stove.
Experimental Design
Three types of briquette were tested, each treatment was
replicated three times which includes, B1 (charcoal dust
of (150 g) contained 100 % of binding agent), B2
(charcoal dust + Saw dust (150 g at 4:2) contained 50 %
of binding agent material), B3 (charcoal dust of (150 g)
contained 50 % of binding agent material) and B4 (1500
g of charcoal) use as control.
Preparation of Liquid Starch
Cassava tubers collected were washed, peeled, ground
and pressed to extract the liquid content. The liquid was
filtered and the filtrate was allowed to stay for two hours
so that the starch would decant from the mixture. The
upper liquid layer was then carefully decanted and the
sediment was mixed with boiled water to form starch.
Briquette Making
The materials were sorted out, after which we mixed and
stir the materials with starch thoroughly. We then
squeezed the mixed materials inside a porous cylindrical
mould to create a hollow round cylinder, the wet
briquette was pulled out of the PVC gently into track dry
board and dried for 7 days before use.
79
Analysis
Analyses carried out at the laboratory were as follows:
time taken to boil water, average time taken to fully
ignite, smoke produced by the briquette, flame
characteristics, ash content, and time taken to burn into
ash.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The comparative evaluation of different waste products
for fuel briquette production is presented in table1, the
result showed that B1 briquette (150 g) contained
charcoal dust + starch (100%) weighing 150 g, took 4
minutes to ignite, 12 minutes to fully ignited, relatively
burned with no smoke, while the average time taken to
boiled 100 cl of water was 1 hour and 13 minutes and
took 6 hours to completely burn into ash with 33.33 %
ash content. B2 briquette (150 g) contained charcoal dust
+ sawdust + starch (50%), took 1 minute to ignite, 9
minutes to fully ignited, burned with little smoke and
took 1 hour 7 minutes to boiled 100 cl of water with
33.33 % of ash content after 2 hours. B3 briquette (150 g)
contained charcoal dust + starch (50%), took 3 minutes to
ignite, 16 minutes to fully ignited, relatively burned with
no smoke, and took 1 hour 13 minutes to boiled same
amount of water with ash content equals to B1 and B2 at
an average of 6 hours to turned ash. The B4 briquette
(150 g) contain wood charcoal which save as control,
took 2 minutes to ignite, 11 minutes to fully ignited with
little smoke and took 4 hours to turn to ash, it also took 1
hour 13 minutes to boiled 100 cl of water with an ash
content of 16.66 %.
B2 & B4 ignite and fully ignited faster than B1 & B3 as
presented in figure I. The ignition time and ignited fully
revealed volatility of the constituted materials, although
there was slight different as a result of starch contents
between B1 which contained 100 % starch content and
B3 with 50 % starch content. The result also indicated
that the ignition time either at the beginning or when
briquettes fully ignited decreases with increases in
biomass concentration which was in line with the work of
Onuegbu, et. al., (2011).
The time taken to boil the same quantity of water and
time taken for treatments to turn to ash were presented in
the figure II, the result revealed that B2 boil and burned
faster than other treatments. This could be as a result of
materials used which contain highly combustible
materials. In addition, the result revealed that B1, B2, and
B3 contains non-combustible materials as the amount of
ash content generated by B1, B2 and B3 doubled that of
B4, which corroborated with the work of Mary, et. al.,
(2009).
But considering the time taken to burn to ash B1 and B3
which contained charcoal dust will released more heat
during combustion than B4 (control) and B2 which
contained charcoal dust plus sawdust. Although the time
taken to boil water was long when considering urgency
which was due to the pots and stoves used which were
made of poor conductive materials. Despite this, the
result presented revealed that charcoal and saw dust
waste can be turned into briquette for energy use, with
Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences (JETEAS) 5(7): 78-81 (ISSN: 2141-7016)
sufficient heat with time, easy ignition, and the
generation of less smoke and less ash content. In ranking
the quality of briquette and source of raw materials of the
briquette type is in the order: B1> B3> B4> B2. For
further conclusions there is need to consider the calorific
value.
Table 1: Showing the parameter of each briquette
Treatment Time taken to Time taken to boil Average
time Time taken to Ash
Smoke character
(150 g)
ignite
water (minutes)
taken to fully burn to ash content
(minutes)
ignite (minutes)
(hrs.)
(%)
B1
4mins
1hr13mins
12mins
6hrs
33.33% Relatively no smoke
B2
1mins
1hr7mins
9mins
2hrs
33.33% Little smoke
B3
3mins
1hr13mins
16mins
6hrs
33.33% Relatively no smoke
B4
2mins
1hr13mins
11mins
4hrs
16.66% Little smoke
Experimental project, 2013
Keywords:
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
B1 = Charcoal dust + starch (100%) weighing 150 g
Briquettes are very efficient as determined by its ability
B2 = Charcoal dust + sawdust + starch (50%) weighing
to: provide heat with time, ease of ignition, devoid of
150 g
danger with reduced smoke, and less ash production. It
B3 = Charcoal dust + starch (50%) weighing 150 g
requires less energy, time saving, well attractive and
B4 = Charcoal weighing 150 g (control)
economical compared to fuel wood and charcoal. Fuel
briquettes stand a potential and better substitute for wood
charcoal production. The recycling of waste materials
into fuel briquettes would solve rural and urban needs as
alternative source of cooking fuel and reduce cost of
energy supply, as well as reduction in excess waste
disposal on land, prevention of deforestation and
promoting conducive and sound environmental
sustainability.
In conclusion, looking at significant of tropical forest and
Nigeria in the world, briquette fuel will also playing vital
roles in carbon storage and sequestration, an approached
that will not only contributing to the concept of
environmental and forest sustainability which emphasizes
wise and prudent use of the resources for today and future
generation, but also bridge the gap of poverty and
facilitating the development and management of forests
that can absorb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, thereby
bring income to the local communities through the
process of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the
Kyoto Protocol. Recycling of huge amount of waste in
the Nigeria to renewable energy will further play an
increasing role in external demand for bio-fuels
production in the country.
The time taken to boil water were too long, meaning that
the energy efficiency of briquette materials needed to be
improved upon and the toxicity of the briquette materials
needed to be evaluated as recommendations for further
researches.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge Olaifa Mumeen,
for his support for the project.
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