INVESTIGATION OF ESSENTIAL COMBUSTION PROPERTIES OF WOOD WASTE (SAWDUST) BRIQUETTES PRODUCED BY A MODIFIED BLOCK MOULD MACHINE AT DIFFERENT BINDER CONCENTRATION

Abstract

An investigation on essential combustion properties of sawdust briquettes of varying starch binder concentrations produced from a block mould machine was carried out. The study was carried out in order to ascertain the binder concentration that produced the best briquettes in terms of its combustibility. The sawdust was manually sieved using 3 mm hole diameter sieve and then dried to 5% moisture content. It was further divided into five samples of 1 kg each. A measured quantity of cassava starch gel of five different concentrations: 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% were prepared and mixed uniformly with the sample. The combustible properties of the briquette were investigated. The results revealed that heating value 33.37±0.01 MJ/kg of saw dust briquettes of 30% starch concentration is the highest while the lowest value of 27.02±0.00 MJ/kg is obtained for saw dust briquettes having 50% starch concentration. This result clearly indicates that the 30% starch concentration briquettes posses better ability to release heat energy when combusted.