STUDIES ON DEVELOPMENT OF FUEL BRIQUETTES FOR HOUSEHOLD AND INDUSTRIAL PURPOSE

Abstract

The hike in the price of electricity, petrol and diesel for daily usage has directed the researches for alternate fuels. But unfortunately recession and climatic changes has increased all the expenses. This makes a tough situation for the production of alternate fuels at low cost. Among several methods fuel briquetting is widely used using municipal waste, vegetable waste, newspaper waste etc. The present investigation is carried out using Almond leaves, saw dust and cocopeat. Using proximate analysis the moisture content, ash content, volatile matter and the fixed carbon are determined. The briquette sample size is fixed as 6 x 3 x 3 inches. The binding material used is plain flour in the proportion of 125 g per each briquette. The study incorporated the determination of calorific value, porosity , ultimate analysis, XRD, SEM analysis. The results indicated that the almond leaf briquette with higher compressive strength burns more time and is safer for storage and transportation.