Production of High-Quality Charcoal Briquettes from Recycled Biomass Residues

The aim of the present study is to produce high-quality charcoal briquettes from biomass residues. Experiments were conducted under conditions of three different biomass residues (rice straw, cotton stems and corn stalks), two binder materials (starch and carton paper) under two different concentrations (5 and 7 wt %) and four operating pressures (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 MPa). The produced charcoal briquettes were evaluated from physical, chemical, thermal and mechanical properties. The charcoal briquettes quality was evaluated and compared with original form of raw biomass residues.Results clarified that high-quality charcoal briquettes could be obtained from cotton residues by operating the press machine under pressure of 1.5 MPa at starch binder material with a concentration of 7 wt%. The previous conditions achieve appropriate charcoal briquette of 400 kg/m3 bulk density, 85.23 % fixed carbon, 6.10 % volatile matter, 4.05 % ash content, 32.21 MJ/kg calorific value, 83.63 % thermal efficiency and 213.79 kg/cm2 compressive strength.