POSSIBILITIES FOR UTILISATION OF TOBACCO STEMSFOR PRODUCTION OF ENERGETIC BRIQUETTES

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) belongs to the group of plants thatproduce agricultural raw material. Besides leaves, which are used to satisfy thepassion for smoking, tobacco can be used for producing oil and biodiesel, becauseit contains 30-40% of vegetable oil. Because of its content of citric acid, tobaccocan be used for production of dyes and varnishes. Seed cake contains highpercentage of proteins (35-44%) and can be used as livestock feed. Because of thehigh contents of lignin (40-45%) and cellulose (28-40%), tobacco stems can beused for production of energy briquettes, which makes tobacco obtain a newusability value. The aim of the experimental researches presented in this paper is todefine the possibilities for production of briquettes from tobacco stems and woodraw material and to evaluate the impact of this kind of raw material on briquettesproperties. For this purpose five models were made: O-control model: 100% woodraw material (BW); model T-I - 25% tobacco stems (TS) : 75% BW; model T-II -50% TS : 50% BW; model T-III - 75% TS : 25% BW and model T-IV - 100% TS.The results of the research show that density of the briquettes is within the limits of526.61 kg/m^3 for model T-IV, to 782.73 kg/m^3 for control model-O. The ashcontent is a little lower than the standard values and it ranges from 0.32% forO-control model, to 2.17% for model T-IV. The sulphur content is much belowpermissible content (0.08%), and it ranges from 0.003 to 0.008%. These briquettes,according to the low calorific value are classified in II and I class. In the smoke ofthe burned briquettes, minimal quantity (0.005%) of nicotine is identified.