Development of Small Scale Screw Extrusion Machine for Production of Sawdust Briquettes in Rural Area in Indonesia

Small scale screw extrusion machine is designed and tested for making compact sawdust briquettes in rural area in Indonesia. The extrusion machine is powered by 5,5 HP gasoline internal combustion engine. In this work, briquetting machine is used to produce sawdust briquettes which two different ratios of starch-sawdust. The ratios of starch to sawdust are 1:4 and 2:4. Sawdust briquettes have a length of 3 cm and 4 cm for both composition ratios. The performance of the machine is investigated in term of density changes of briquettes after three days. The density of sawdust briquettes just after extrusion process is compared with the density of sawdust briquettes after 3 days sunlight drying. The result shows that the extrusion machine is able to produce compact sawdust briquettes with different ratios of starch to sawdust. The result also indicates that 3 cm long sawdust briquettes which starch to sawdust ratio 2 : 4 has the lowest density changes and has the highest compressive strength.