Studies on development of agro based biomass briquettes from sorghum panicle and pearl millets

Abstract

As the substitutes for non-renewable energy sources, the biomass briquettes play an important role in the production of eco-friendly fuel. Biomass briquettes, which is in the dense form has gained huge popularity in the poor countries and in the developing countries as an alternative source of fuel for cooking. Because of its large availability in the market, biomass briquette has replaced the traditional fuel within a short period of time. But it is essential to select the right materials for the production of good briquettes. The agro wastes are selected based on physical properties, proximate analysis, ultimate analysis and thermal analysis for domestic and industrial purposes. The major contributors to energy are the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. For the manufacturing of energy, the biomass obtained from plants can be used as a substitute for renewable and carbon-neutral raw materials. The biomass materials are densified to increase the bulk densities so as to avoid the difficulties and technical limitations during loading, storage and transportation. Briquetting is the densification technique adopted in this research for the economic use. In the study, sorghum panicle and pearl millets were considered which were found in abundance in the area of Perundurai Taluk, Erode district, Tamilnadu. These agro-wastes were not utilised properly and were burnt when found in excess. Therefore, these agro-wastes were used for the production of biomass briquettes. Sorghum panicle and pearl millets were collected, cleaned and dried for 7 days naturally. The size of the agro-wastes were reduced by using sieve analysis. The particles which were reduced are then formed into briquettes by using a briquette mould of inner diameter 80 mm, thickness 8 mm and height 150 mm respectively newline