Development of groundnut shells and bagasse briquettes as sustainable fuel sources for domestic cooking applications in Uganda
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Date
2017
Authors
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Publisher
Renewable Energy
Abstract
In this study groundnut shells and bagasse briquettes from agricultural wastes were developed
with cassava and wheat starch binders using low pressure and high pressure techniques. In the
low pressure technique, briquettes were produced after carbonization of groundnut shells and
bagasse. The resulting bio-char was mixed with 30, 50, 70 and 90 grams of cassava and wheat
flour starch binder for each 1000g of groundnut shells and bagasse bio-char. Groundnut shell
briquettes were also developed under high pressure (230 MPa) using groundnut shells (1000g)
without a binder, groundnut shells (1000g) with cassava flour starch binder (250g) and groundnut
shells with wheat flour starch binder (250g). Thermo-physical properties of the briquettes were
determined using thermo-gravimetric analysis. A Bomb calorimeter was used to determine the
higher heating values of the briquettes. Thermal characteristics were determined by observing the
flame temperature during combustion. The mechanical integrity of the briquettes was determined
using the drop test method. The higher heating values for groundnut shell and bagasse briquettes
developed using low pressure techniques were between 21 and 23 MJ/kg for both cassava and
wheat starch binders. The results were all above the 16 MJ/kg average recorded for non-
carbonized groundnut shell briquettes developed under high pressure.
Description
Keywords
Bagasse, Binder, Briquettes, Groundnut shells, Drop Strength, HHV
Citation
Michael Lubwama, Vianney Andrew Yiga, Development of groundnut shells and bagasse briquettes as sustainable fuel sources for domestic cooking applications in Uganda, Renewable Energy (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2017.04.041