Development and Performance Evaluation of Light Duty Hydraulically Operated Biomass Briquettes Forming Machine for Domestic Use

In this study, a manually operated, cost-effective, easy to use and hydraulically pressed biomass briquettes forming machine was indigenously designed and developed that would be suitable to use at domestic level. Using the newly developed machine, briquettes from different types of material can be prepared but only saw dust material was used to form the briquettes and test to evaluate the machine at initial stage. This machine comprises of 25 cylinders and operated manually by a hydraulic press to form briquettes. Briquettes are prepared using a suitable binder. Three types of easily available and cheap binders (Glue, Wheat Flour, and Sugarcane Waste) in similar ratio of raw material (sawdust) to binder weight (100:25) were used to prepare briquettes. Quality of briquettes in terms of durability and burning rate were determined for three different levels of compression pressure and moisture contents. The best results for durability (67.2%) and burning rate (42.2 min) were showed by the glue briquettes at the highest compression pressure (9 MP). On the other hand different levels of moisture levels did not affect the briquettes quality significantly.