Abstract:
It is necessary to convert combustible municipal solid waste (CMSW) and biomass
wastes such as sawdust, coir pitch, coffee husk, rice husk etc. to useful biomass
briquettes which will be the substitute for fossil fuels. This research focused on the
design and fabrication of a portable and a low cost briquetting machine. It also focused
on the production of bio briquettes using locally sourced raw materials comprising of
combustible municipal solid waste with sawdust as binding agent. The collected waste
was sorted, dried and shredded into suitable form. The fuel prepared by blending
combustible fraction of municipal waste was called refuse derived fuel (RDF). The
RDF from mixed combustible municipal solid waste contained: 38% wood chips from
soft wood, 45% disintegrated carton waste, 11% disintegrated PET bottles, 6% textile
waste. The produced briquette was cylindrical in shape having a diameter of 70 mm
and length 180 mm, density of 1129 kg/m3. The redial compressive strength 0.152
kN/m2, stability in terms of length of briquette after six weeks was 0.12 m. The capacity
of the machine is 145 kg/hr. Analysis from the briquette produced indicated that refuse
derived fuel (RDF) from combustible municipal solid waste (CMSW) has good
combustible properties and it has a better density that was obtained at a low moisture
content and high die temperature of 3.0% and 44.3o C respectively
