Design of a Bench Scale Machine for Biomass Briquetting

Many of the developing countries produce huge quantities of agro residues but they are used inefficiently causing extensive pollution to the environment. Apart from the problems of transportation, storage, and handling, the direct burning of loose biomass in conventional grates is associated with very low thermal efficiency and wide spread air pollution. For effective utilization of biomass, briquetting technology is one of the convenient means. Briquetting is a method of compacting the wastes into a single solid rod or brick with the use of briquetting machine. In this study, a bench scale biomass briquetting machine suitable for use in rural communities was designed and constructed. The main components of the machine are hopper, cylinder, outlet die, screw worms, power transmission system and frame and were fabricated using mild steel. It was observed that briquetting machine is suitable for lower RPM. It does not require high speed. The maximum machine capacity obtained was 33.76 kg/h at 55 rpm. The compressibility of the machine was found 36–38%. The average energy requirement to operate bench scale briquetting machine was observed as 3.6 kWh.