Compressive Property of Biomass Briquettes Made of Hazelnut Shell and Peanut Shell

Abstract

In Indonesia, energy consumption increases as with its population, while fossil energy sources keep running out. This condition forces the development of non-fossil energy sources. One promising alternative is biomass briquette. In this study a biomass briquette was made using hazelnut shell (limbah cangkang kemiri CK) and peanut shell waste (kulit kacang tanah KT) with various CK concentrations: 0/24, 4/24, 8/24, 12/24, 16/24, 20/24, and 24/24 (w/w). Initially, dried CK and KT waste were processed into charcoal powder with a particle size of ∼ 0,25 mm. The briquette was prepared by densification of the two charcoal mixtures at a pressure of 29778,99 N/m2 for 15 min, followed by heating at 60 °C for 4 h. Due to storage and delivery process in the application, briquettes must have good compressive properties. In this study, compressive property of the produced briquette was characterized using a universal testing machine (UTM). The results showed that the values of ultimate strength, modulus of elasticity, and elongation at break of the CK-KT briquette increased with increasing CK concentration, with highest values of 5.69 MPa, 80 MPa and 0.146, respectively.