Development and evaluation of biomass-based alternative charcoal

Abstract

Environmental issues resulting from production and application of wood charcoal can be addressed by using biomass briquettes as alternative. This research was undertaken to develop and evaluate briquette from jatropha, groundnut and melon seed residues. Samples of the briquette were formed from mixtures of 0.32-0.39 kg carbonised residues, 0.30-0.40 kg starch and 0.02- 0.04 kg water. Physical and mechanical properties of the briquette samples including calorific value, bulk density and breaking force were determined using standard methods. Box-Bekhen Design Methodology was used to determine the optimum briquette blend. The results showed that the optimal briquette blend gave values of 4711.87 kcal.kg–1 calorific value, 282.59 kg m–3 bulk density and 1.36 kN breaking force, with a desirability index of 61.5%. A comparative analysis of the properties of the optimal briquette with that of a wood charcoal indicates no significant difference (P<0.05). This implies that the briquette can serve as an alternative energy source for cooking in rural communities.

The regular study of the influence of rotational speed and height on the mixing performance ofArc-Blade stirrer at different blade diameters

“…Hoefels et al [11] investigated the influence of five basic parameters on the mixing efficiency of dry agitator bead mills and derived the optimum values for each parameter and their interactions. Fadeyibi et al [12] investigated a dough mixer and optimised the speed, geometric angle and number of blades of the machine with the effective mixing ratio as the optimisation objective, which resulted in a significant reduction in mixing time. Li et al [13] analysed the effect of various parameters of the mixer on the mixing effect and showed that the rotational speed, liquid level height, paddle tilt angle and viscosity of the liquid had a significant effect on the mixing performance.…”