Biobriquettes-an Alternative Fuel for Sustainable Development

What is it about?

Raw coal is still burnt as fuel in many developing countries. These also have a lot of waste biomass, which finds limited use or used inefficiently. Besides pollution from coal and biomass combustion, they always face problems during transportation and storage because they are susceptible to moisture. Biobriquettes are composite fuel prepared from a mixture of biomass and coal in a roller press briquetting machine. They consist of different proportions of biomass (up to 30%) and coal or lignite (up to 70%). Introduction of lime based desulfurizing agents (DSA) such as CaCO3and Ca (OH)2into the briquettes can reduce the SO2emissions by 80-90%, thus minimizing the pollution coming from coal combustion. Some fuel and combustion properties of these briquettes were studied. The briquette fuels have better physico-mechanical properties and combustion properties in comparison to coal/lignite. The ignition temperatures of biobriquettes are lower than coal or lignite, whereas the calorific values are greater than biomass. Hence, the biobriquettes can be used as an alternative fuel to fuel wood, coal and lignite in the kilns, boilers, combustors and for cooking as well.

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Why is it important?

Large amounts of low quality coal, lignite and biomass residues in Nepal can be used more efficiently to produce biobriquettes and replace to some extent the fuel wood used in industrial boilers and kilns and cooking.

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