Briquetting Process, Techniques, Uses, Briquetting Types

Briquetting Process Technologies in India

Today, let us learn the subject of Briquetting Process in India, technology, steps involved in this process. What is Briquetting? The Briquetting procedure is the conversion of agricultural waste into uniformly shaped briquettes that is easy to use, transport and store.

The method of binding together the minerals such as coal dust, or other combustible biomass material which is used for fuel and kindling to start a fire is called Briquetting. The procedure of mounting mineral ore, rock, or metal fragments in casting material, such as natural or artificial resins, waxes, metals, to facilitate handling through grinding, polishing, and microscopic examination.

According to us, industrial or agricultural waste is going to release outside. But in today’s era, the industrialists are not sure how to use this industrial waste material in their favor. In this approach, the biomass briquette plant concept came into existence which helps in utilizing waste the material properly.

The biomass Briquetting plant helps in protecting the environment and prevents unwanted pollution around you. Now a day the environmental pollution is increasing at an exponential rate and we don’t have any important options to prevent it. This is the cause why Jay Khodiyar is manufacturing Briquette machine and has designed biomass briquette plant to save the World environmental. We can use the raw material such as Saw Dust, Bamboo dust, Bagasse, Cotton Stalk, Coffee husk, Groundnut shell, Mustard Husk or Stalk, Pine Needles, Rice Husk, Sugar Mill Waste, Jute waste, Coir pith and other wastes and residues like Castor Shell, Red Gram Stalk, Tobacco stem, Tea Waste, Sander Dust, Tree Bark, Wild Grasses & Shrubs and Sander dust etc. can also be Briquetted individually or in combination without using any binder.

Read: Smart Farming Techniques.

The Briquettes are eco-friendly and renewable energy in our Country. It is used in bulk quantity in Developed countries. So, there will be a worldwide necessity of Biomass Briquettes to fulfill the alternate source of other fuels.

Briquetting Process

The idea of Briquetting is using raw materials that are not usable due to a lack of density, compressing them into a solid fuel of a convenient shape that can be burned like wood or charcoal. The briquettes have improved physical and combustion characteristics than the initial waste. Briquettes will develop combustion efficiency using the existing traditional furnaces. In addition Briquettes to killing all insects and diseases as well as reducing the destructive fires risk in the countryside.

The raw materials suitable for Briquetting are rice straws, wheat straws, cotton stalks, corn stalks, sugar cane waste or baggage, fruit branches, etc. However, in the recommended complex cotton stalks and fruit branches are best utilized by Briquetting. The Briquetting process starts with the collection of wastes followed by size reduction, drying, and compaction by an extruder or by the press.

Briquetting is one of the compaction methods for densification of waste materials and converts them into something useful. Some of the raw materials used in preparing Briquetting consist of coal, charcoal, wood; sawdust, bagasse, paper, stalks, etc. They are compressed in particular briquette press machine to generate a uniform shaped briquette that can be used to ignite a fire and generate energy. The briquettes arranged to come in different shape and size depending on the application for which it is to be used.

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Steps used for a Briquetting process:

The process of Briquetting consists of the following steps:

• Gathering biomass waste material
• Crushing
• Compressing to form a briquette
• Drying the briquette

In the Briquetting process, the materials are first crushed into a very small size so that they can be compressed properly and burn easily. Special crushing machine is obtainable in the market to crush the raw materials. The briquette is highly preferred in the locations where fuel is hard to find and is costly. Thus at such places, Briquetting can become the best choice for getting fuel at a cheap price and easy way. The major advantage in a Briquetting plant is that it does not require any binder to bind the materials together to form a briquette. Thus it is also called as binder-less technology.

The briquettes are chosen over coal and other nonrenewable fuel that are hard to get and generate. The advantage of Briquetting is the high calorific valve helpful in easy ignition. Also, other main factors for Briquetting are low production cost, waste material management and conversion of waste to revenue.

Some facts about Briquette:

• A briquette is a compressed block of coal dust or other biomass material such as charcoal, sawdust, or paper used for fuel and to begin a fire. The term derives from the French word briquette meaning brick.
• Briquetting is the procedure of creating briquettes. A briquette is mainly a block of compressed biomass waste get from natural materials like agricultural waste, forestry waste, coal pieces, etc. These briquettes perform as the best substitute for nonrenewable fuel that is nature-friendly. This briquette poses no harmful effect on the environment and is atmosphere friendly. The major use of these briquettes is as a substitute to fuel, coal, cooking and even in boilers.
• Briquettes can be produced with a density of 1.2 g/cm³ from loose biomass Briquettes of bulk density 0.1 to 0.2 g / cm³ These can be burnt clean and therefore are eco-friendly arid those advantages that are associated with the use of biomass are present in the briquettes.
• India is the only country where the Briquetting sector is growing regularly in spite of some failures. As an effect of a few successes and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) promotional efforts, a number of entrepreneurs are confidently investing in biomass briquette. These entrepreneurs are making strenuous efforts to improve both the production process and the technology.
• Briquettes are flammable blocks of matter which can be used as fuel. They are prepared from extruded or compressed shredded combustible materials. A binding agent like starch can be necessary to hold the materials together, though pressure may at times be enough.
• Briquetting or pelletizing is the process to develop the characteristics of biomass as a renewable energy resource by densification. Densification means less volume required for the same amount of energy output.

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Benefits of Briquetting:

Major benefits from the utilization of briquettes as fuel are;

More efficient: Along with the compactness of the briquettes is the increase in heating charge. Briquettes can moderately produce more intense heat than other fuel. They have a higher practical thermal importance and much lower ash content (2-10% compared to 20-40% in coal). In fact, they are 40% more capable, as well as hotter and longer lasting than firewood. This better efficiency can be attributed to their low moisture & density.

Concentrated: Since briquettes are formed from compressing combustible materials, they are denser, harder, and more compact. They have a very high specific density (1200kg/m3) and bulk density (800kg/m3) compared to 60 to 180 kg/m3 of loose biomass. Hence, they offer a more concentrated form of energy than firewood or charcoal.

Slow-burning: The compression procedure allows the briquettes to burn for a lot longer than if it was loose in its original condition.

Easy to make: There are currently commercial briquettes sold in the market. However, ordinary households can create briquettes. You must have a stock of combustible matter, a binder, and a molder to shape the briquettes.

Smokeless: This is a unique property of briquettes. Using them generate no smoke, soot, or carbon deposits. Depending on the base material, they create no or little fly ash.

Easily transported: Compacting biomass waste into briquettes reduces the volume by ten times, making it much easier to store and transport than loose biomass waste. Considering their shape, size, and density, briquettes are superb for long-distance transport.

Easily stored: The size and shape of briquettes create them easily be stored. We can readily pile them in some heaps as of their fun shapes like cubical, spherical shape, cylindrical, or rectangular blocks. They are likewise very clean to handle and be packed into bags.

Cheaper: Since briquettes can be domestically prepared from plants and animal wastes, they are consequently less expensive to produce, and thereby sold at lower prices.

Renewable: Briquettes make use of organic materials which are very common and renewable. Thus, we are ensured of the sustainability of such a fuel source.

Manufacturing different briquettes:

Wood briquettes are mostly produced by industries of the primary processing of wood, mainly sawdust or chips. These elements are occasionally refined before being compressed.

Agro-fuel briquettes are produced from wood chips from hedges, very short rotation coppices, or herbaceous biomass (e.g. miscanthus).

No chemical additive is used (natural additives example as starch might be used in limited quantity); the cohesion is made sure by the natural binders of the biomass.

To be comprehensive, there are also briquettes prepared from animal litter compressed (e.g.  Horse litters).

Cost of Briquetting machine:

The cost of automatic Briquetting machine is approximately Rs 15.5 Lakh/ Unit

Availability of raw material:

Raw material necessary for production briquette plant is effortlessly obtainable in abundance in almost all the agricultural nations.

In India the important raw materials used are Amla Seed, Almonds, Babool, Bagasse, Bamboo dust briquette,  Coffee husk, Castor seed shell, Cashew shell, Coir pith, Cotton shells, Rice husk, Paddy Straw, Sawdust, Soybean husk, Jute waste, Tobacco waste, Groundnut Shell, Cotton Stalks or Chips, Mustard Stalk, etc.

Fundamental aspects of Briquetting:

Pressure Compaction:

Briquetting is one of several agglomeration methods which are broadly characterized as densification technologies. Agglomeration of residues is done with the function of making them denser for their use in energy production. Raw materials for Briquetting contain waste from wood industries, loose biomass, and other waste products. On the source of compaction, the Briquetting technologies can be divided into:

• High-pressure compaction
• Medium pressure compaction with a heating device
• Low-pressure compaction with a binder

Binding Mechanisms of Densification:

The suitability of biomass for Briquetting, it is necessary to know the physical and chemical properties of biomass which also influence its behavior as a fuel.

Physical properties of interest contain moisture content, bulk density, void volume, and thermal properties. Chemical characteristics of importance contain the proximate and ultimate analysis, and higher heating value. The physical properties are very important in any description of the binding mechanisms of biomass densification. Densification of Briquetting under high pressure brings about mechanical interlocking and increased adhesion between the particles, forming intermolecular bonds in the contact area. In the case of biomass, the binding mechanisms under high pressure can be separated into adhesion and cohesion forces.

Mechanism of Compaction:

In a screw extruder, the compaction rotating screw takes the material from the feed port, through the barrel, and compacts it against a die which assists the build-up of a pressure gradient along the screw.

During this procedure, the biomass is forced into intimate and substantially sliding contact with the barrel walls. This causes frictional effects due to shearing and working of biomass. The joint effects of the friction caused at the barrel wall, the heat due to internal friction in the material and high rotational speed (~600 rpm) of the screw causes an increase in temperature in the closed organism which helps in heating the biomass. Then it is forced through the extrusion die, where the briquette with the required shape is produced. At this phase just before entering the die, the pressure exerted is maximum. If the die is narrowed the biomass gets further compacted.

Generally, the die is heated for the smooth extrusion of the briquette. Some of the heat of the heated die is transmitted to the biomass and the screw surface.

Application of Briquettes:

The applications of Briquettes in India are given below;

Domestic use: Many households generally use briquettes for cooking, space, and water heating purposes.

Hospitality: Hospitals used Briquettes for space and water heating, and cooking applications.

Ceramic production: Many ceramic industries use Briquettes for tile creation, brick kilns, and pot firing.

Textiles: Textile industries use high-quality Briquettes for bleaching and drying functions.

Commercial and institutional catering: Commercial firms use these Briquettes for grilling, cooking, and water heating.

Food Processing Industries: Food processing industries use Briquettes in the drying, bakeries, distilleries, canteens, and restaurants.

Industrial Boilers: Industrial boilers use high-density Briquettes for the steam generation and heat generation.

Poultry: Briquettes generated out of Briquette Machines are used by the poultry for the heating of chicks and incubation purposes.

Agriculture-based Industries: Agro-based industries use Briquettes for tea drying, tobacco curing, and oil milling, etc.

Gasification: Many industries use Briquettes as the fuel for the gasifiers to produce electricity.

That’s folks about steps involved in Briquetting Process.

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