Author(s)

M. S. Aris, S. Hassan, O. Mamat & K. Sabil

Abstract

Current utilization of oil palm waste is used in mill boilers to produce steam, and electricity through a back pressure turbine. The reuse of waste material reduces operation costs, negative environmental effects and dependency on conventional fuels. This paper focuses on the development of briquettes from oil palm waste to enhance its utilization as fuel. Several aspects of improvement to the physical properties as well as energy content were taken into account in this study. A total of eight tests were conducted for different ratios of shell, fiber and binder mixtures as well as varying the type of binder material used. Varying briquette pressing pressures were also considered in these tests. Results show good physical properties in terms of durability, impact and compressive strength for a 36:54:10 ratio by mass of fiber, shell and waste paper briquette with 5.7% ash and 5.24% moisture content. The gross calorific value of 22.4 MJ/kg indicates good energy content of the briquette. The briquette pressing pressure of 159 MPa was used after discovering that it had an outright positive effect on almost all physical and energy components for all combinations tested. The results obtained from this study shows a 36% increase in energy content from a similar study conducted on oil palm briquettes using other binder material. There was also a substantial increase in physical properties for the above ratio and binder material as compared to studies conducted by others Keywords: fuel briquettes, oil palm waste, briquette mixture ratio.

Keywords

fuel briquettes, oil palm waste, briquette mixture ratio.