Evaluation of briquettes produced from maize cob and stalk

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate the performance of maize cob and maize cob with stalk with a mix ratio 2:1; 200 g shelled maize cob: 100 g of maize stalk) briquettes as fuel source for domestic cooking. The two residues were individually chopped into small pieces using a hammer mill and 0.6 mm particle size was utilized for the purpose of this work. Cassava starch was used as binder with mix ratio of 2:1 (Residue to Binder). A briquetting mold was used and residues were compressed into briquettes using a manual hydraulic press. Performance tests showed maize cob with stalk briquettes performed better with a higher cooking efficiency (17.3 %), fuel efficiency (19.78 %) and low fuel consumption (0.97 kg/hr) and boiling time of 20 mins. These results were significant at 5 % level of significance. Maize cob briquettes had higher calorific value (17.8 MJ/Kg) and higher fuel consumption rate (1.3 kg/hr), but had lower cooking efficiency (10.28 %) and fuel efficiency (12.8 %) with a boiling time of 15 minutes. The smoke emission using the briquettes was highly reduced. The crop residues used significantly affect the performance of the developed briquettes. Maize cob with stalk briquette was preferred due to its high cooking efficiency, fuel efficiency and low fuel consumption.