Development of Indonesia corncob and rice husk biobriquette as alternative energy source

Abstract

Facing the increasing of fuel price and lacking of world oil resource, research for biobriquette as alternative energy for fossil fuel is conducted. Indonesia has considerable amount of biomass and it is still remain unused that can be used as biobriquette. As the initial research, Garut, Ciamis, and Sumedang district, West Java are selected which have rice husk and corncob commodities. In these disrticts, rice husk and corncob potency are respectively 4,460.73 tons and 3,222.85 tons and potentially result 57,572.86 GJ from husk and 60,911.86 GJ from corncob. To optimize mechanical properties and calorie value of biobriquette, research for calorie content and combination of rice husk and corncob are being conducted with various adhesive content and mixture. The best result of shatter index, durability, and calorie test on the corncob biobriquette is from biobriquette with 6% adhesive with calorie content as 5,516.85 kkal/kg. While the best calorie content for husk biobriquette is 6% adhesive with calorie content as 2,650.20 kkal/kg. The best calorie content for mixed biobriquette is biobriquette with 75% corncob and 25% rice husk with calorie content as 5,331.95 kkal/kg. Economy analysis show for corncob and husk biobriquette production cost per kg are respectively Rp 2,585.00 and Rp 2.625.00 with price of Rp 5,000.00 and Rp 3,000.00 obtained nett profit respectively Rp 2,173.00 and Rp 338.00.