Application of 2K full factorial on the production of charcoal briquettes made from coconut shell

Abstract

The production of charcoal briquettes using 2k full factorial Design in Design Expert V12 software was utilized in this research work. The factors considered are: Quantity of CaCO3, Quantity of NaNO3 and Quantity of Starch binder. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicates that the linear effect of all the factors: A (Quantity of Catalyst), B (Quantity of CaCO3) and C (Quantity of Starch) are significant with P-values of 0.0050, 0.0062, and 0.0003 respectively. Other significant effects are the interactive effect of BC (Quantity of NaNO3 and Quantity of Starch) and that of the combine effect of all the three (3) factors (ABC) with P-values of 0.0125 and 0.0031 respectively. The Model F-value of 755.59 implies the significant of the model. The coefficient of determinant (R2) for the model of 0.9995 and Adjusted R2 of 0.9981 shows that the model equation has a very good fit to the experimental data. Briquettes produced from Run 7 and 4 have the least volatile matter of 1.54% and 1.67% respectively, the lowest ash content of 2.14% and 2.19 % respectively and the highest percentage fix carbon of 97.67% and 96.56% respectively.