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Converting the de-oiled cashew nut shell into usable products (e.g. briquettes) will address the problem of waste disposal. The study was conducted to develop an environment-friendly fuel briquette sufficient to resist impact during handling and transport and produce the required heat for domestic cooking and also for industrial application. Piston-type and screw-type briquetting machines and three levels of binding agent were used in the production of de-oiled spent cashew shell-based fuel briquettes. The produced briquettes were subject for physicochemical, mechanical and thermal properties tests. Results showed that the best formulation that is required to produce a good quality de-oiled cashew nut shell fuel briquettes using both piston-type and screw type briquetting machines is 10 % binding agent with briquette density, shatter resistance and compressive strength of 0.87 g/cm 3 and 0.83 g/cm 3 , 99.54 and 99.89 % and 43.97 and 101.82 kPa, respectively. The total electricity consumption is 150.91 kWh per ton of briquettes while LPG consumption is 1.32 kg. It is concluded that the energy values and combustion qualities of the briquettes produced in this study are sufficient enough to produce the required heat for domestic cooking and a potential for industrial application.

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Carbonized rice hulls (CRH) and carbonized corn cobs (CCC) obtained during the utilization of PHilMech designed biomass furnaces were used as raw materials in the production of fuel briquettes. Two types of briquetting machines were used in the experiments and cassava starch was applied as binding agent during the formulation of samples. The briquettes were evaluated in terms of their physical and thermal properties. Results showed that the average density of CRH briquettes produced in screw-type machine was higher than the briquettes produced in piston-type machine. This observation can be attributed to the higher pressure applied in the screw-type machine. However, the briquettes made from the piston-type machine were found to be more durable compared to the one produced in screw-type machine, which can be associated with the high concentration of binding agent as required when using the piston-type machine. The optimum formulation using piston-type briquetting machine is 10% binding agent for CRH and 12.5% for CCC. For screw-type briquetting machine, 2.25% binding agent is ideal for both CRH and CCC. The resulting energy values and combustion qualities of the briquettes produced from the carbonized based fuel briquettes were sufficient to produce the required heat for industrial application.

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