DEVELOPMENT OF A MACHINE FOR PRODUCTION OF BRIQUETTE FROM COMBUSTIBLE MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE

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