THE CHARACTERIZATION OF WATER LILY BRIQUETTES WITH BANANA PEEL BINDER

Abstract

The study assessed the interaction of binder proportion with burning characteristics of banana peel blended water Lily fuel briquettes. For this study, a constant mass (30g) of water lily powder was used across all mixtures, while a varying mass of banana peel, i.e. (0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% of the 30g mass of water lily was correspondingly used for the respective mixtures). The resultant homogenous feedstock, hydrated with 200ml of hot water, was compacted in a steel cylindrical die with 14.21 cm as height and 2.14 cm as diameter, applying pressure of5 MPa, and observing a hold time of 20 minutes. The briquettes were then expelled for additional research. Fixed carbon ranged from 16.68 % to 25.38 %, volatile matter from 50.5 % to 56.8%, Ash from 15.4 % to 18.2% and calorific value from 24751kJ/kg to 25737 kJ/kg. These calorific value range recommend this briquette variants, suitable for small scale heating 
application, in line with solid fuel standard (DIN 51731:1996-10), which stipulate among other requirements, 17000 kJ/kg as the threshold minimum calorific value for solid fuels. Based on the experimental results, it was observed that the binder increment in the feedstock composition, lengthened the briquettes' igniting period, but decreased their burning rate.