Waste Management 30 (2010) 804807

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Waste Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman

Briquetting of charcoal from sugar-cane bagasse y ash (scbfa) as an alternative fuel

S.R. Teixeira a,*, A.F.V. Pena a, A.G. Miguel b
a
b

Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Universidade Estadual Paulista UNESP, P.O. Box 467, 19060-080 Presidente Prudente, SP, Brazil
Usina Alto Alegre S.A., Fazenda Alta Floresta Distrito de Amelipolis, 19140-000 Presidente Prudente, SP, Brazil

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Accepted 10 January 2010
Available online 4 February 2010

a b s t r a c t
Brazil is the largest worldwide producer of alcohol and sugar from sugar-cane and has an extensive alternative program for car fuel which is unique. The objective of this work is to offer one management option
of a solid residue produced by this industrial segment. The pressed sugar-cane bagasse is burned to produce steam and electricity by cogeneration. The combustion yields both bottom and y ashes which contain high amounts of silicon oxide as a major component. Fly ash which contains a high volume (>30% by
weight) of charcoal was used in this work. The ash was sieved to separate the thick charcoal from inorganic materials which are concentrated in the thinner fraction. The briquettes were hand pressed using
charcoal mixed with a binder (starch) obtained from cassava our (a tropical root). The results (density,
mechanical resistance) obtained with 8% by weight of starch binder are presented here. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to characterize the ashes and the
briquettes. The results show that sugar-cane bagasse y ash (SCBFA) can be used to produce briquettes
with an average density of 1.12 g cm 3 and an average caloric value of 25,551 kJ/kg.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In recent years, energy sources which cause less pollution (biodiesel and ethyl alcohol) have emerged as alternatives to fossil
fuels (Prolcool, 2001). Brazil is the worlds largest producer of
alcohol and sugar from sugar cane (Ethanol fuel in Brazil, 2009).
The fast carbon cycling in sugar-cane production and use are
responsible for the CO2 emission reduction (Macedo, 1992). Brazil
is the only country worldwide that has an extensive alternative
program for automobile fuel. Today more than one million ex fuel
(alcohol and/or gasoline) cars are in use, and more than 75% of the
new cars produced in the country use this system. The Brazilian
PROALCOOL program (Prolcool, 2001) was 33 years old in 2008,
and today almost ve million cars (25% of the nations total)
which run on alcohol or ex fuel are in use. The new technology
of ex-fuel vehicles which was developed in 1990 decade and applied to new cars in 2003 by Volkswagen (Prolcool, 2001) revived
the program.
The strong internal demand and great interest shown by industrialized countries for ethyl alcohol facilitated competition in Brazil
for the implementation of a substantial number of factories for the
production of alcohol and sugar. The necessity for expansion of this
sector drives the national industry to improve the technologies for
sugar/alcohol and sugar-cane production (new plant varieties, irrigation, new cutting and harvesting technologies). The estimated
2007/2008 sugar cane harvest (CONAB, 2009) is 629 Mton to pro* Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 18 32295355; fax: +55 18 32215682.
E-mail address: rainho@fct.unesp.br (S.R. Teixeira).
0956-053X/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2010.01.018

duce sugar (44.6%) and alcohol (55.4%). The volume of y and bottom ash that will be produced in this harvest is 3.2 Mton
(1000 kg cane ? 250 kg bagasse ? 6 kg ash) (FIESP/CIESP, 2001).
In the functioning of these factories, sugar-cane is ground, and
the resulting product is used for sugar extraction or in a fermentation process to produce alcohol. Currently, sugar-cane bagasse is
burned in a boiler to produce steam utilized in factory processes
and also to power turbines for the production of electrical energy
which supplies the energy needs of the factories with the excess
being commercialized in the region. In 2008, sugar cane products
represented 16.4% of the total energy produced in Brazil, and production is subsequently increasing (BEN, 2009).
In the bagasse burning process, black fumes are expelled
through the chimney (y ash recovered in the gas washer), and a
clearer ash falls to the bottom of the boiler (bottom ash). Tens of
thousands of tons of this y ash (principally carbon and silica)
are released into the atmosphere (airborne y ash) every year
and can be a health hazard. All these solid residues of bottom
and y ash collected at the smoke washer, are again dumped into
the environment, increasing the concentration of sand in the soil
and making it impermeable due to the ne charcoal powder. In
the present work (see Section 3), it was determined that the black
fumes that pass through the gas washer contain gases and solid
particles (organic and inorganic). The inorganic particles are composed mainly of charcoal and a small volumetric portion of inorganic materials (silicon, iron oxides and other minerals). Today
not all mills have lters or gas washers, but Brazilian environmental legislation has mandated a time limit for improvement of this
pollution control.

S.R. Teixeira et al. / Waste Management 30 (2010) 804807

The briquetting process converts the charcoal powder into high

density energy-concentrated fuel pellets or other different geometric forms (for example, cylindrical rods). Agricultural wastes briquettes are produced and utilized in different parts of the world
(Charcoal Briquette, 2002; Kibwage et al., 2006; Brito and Nucci,
1984; Faria and Brito, 1981; FAO, 1987; Smith, 2004; Eriksson
and Prior, 1990). Because charcoal briquettes are not used in Brazil,
there is only one vegetal charcoal briquette factory that export almost all of the material produced. In general, the process begins
with burning wood for charcoal from which briquettes are
produced.
In the search for new alternative sources of ecologically
friendly energy, the utilization of charcoal powder from y ash
for the production of briquettes has become a good alternative.
In the production of charcoal, this residue is not dumped on the
soil but is used to produce energy, and trees are saved. Conventional charcoal production in Brazil is a destructive element of
natural forests. The conversion of this residue into charcoal briquettes could provide a new market for factories. With the
growth of this industrial sector, charcoal can be substituted as
part of the wood charcoal in some industrial processes to produce
energy and lessen deforestation. In published works about charcoal briquette production from sugar-cane bagasse (Kibwage
et al., 2006; Smith, 2004; Zandersons et al., 1999; Karstad,
2003), the authors propose to carbonize bagasse to produce charcoal briquettes. In Brazil, the sugar-cane/alcohol industries reduce
all bagasse is burned to produce steam and electrical energy generating the bottom and y ash; today almost all industries are
small thermal-electrical power plants (co-generating electric energy). The steam and part of the electrical energy produced is
used by the industry, and the energy surplus is sold to companies
responsible for energy distribution.
The interest in this work is motivated by the environmental aspect of protecting the atmosphere, the soil and the health of the
people who live and work near the mills, the volume of this kind
of y ash produced and an increase in the activities of the sugar
alcohol sector in Brazil. Therefore, the objective of this study is to
demonstrate the feasibility of recovering ne charcoal from y
ash to produce charcoal briquettes. The use of charcoal collected
in the gas washer from the industry chimney to produce fuel material (briquettes) as is proposed in this work has not been studied as
is shown by the small number of references cited. To attain this
objective, the inorganic concentration in the SCBFA will be decreased by sieving, then mixing with gum (binder) and pressing
to produce briquettes. After drying, the product will undergo several tests such as residual humidity, density, mechanical resistance, residual ash and caloric value.

2. Material and methods

Fly ash samples were collected at the solid/water exit of the gas
washer (Fig. 1) at the Alto Alegre mill in the nearby Presidente Prudente city in So Paulo State, Brazil. The SCBFA was passed through
a 0.125 mm (120 Mesh) sieve, and the gross fraction (>0.125 mm)
was used to prepare the briquettes. The moisture and organic and
inorganic (ash) fractions were obtained using a laboratory oven
and balance. The values presented are the average of ve samples
(5 g each) dried (at 110 C for 24 h) and then red at 800 C.
Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) (TA Instruments model SDT Q600) were used to
characterize the ashes and briquettes (humidity, organic and inorganic concentrations and the homogeneity of the charcoal/binder
blend). The caloric value (average value of three samples) was
determined using a bomb calorimeter system (Perkin Elmer model
KL-5) according to the guidelines of the Brazilian normalization

805

Fig. 1. Screw which press the y ash through a stainless steel tube to lessen its
moisture.

(ABNT, 1984). The chemical composition of the ash was determined by X-ray uorescence (Shimadzu, model XRF 1800).
A binding material must be used (Charcoal Briquette, 2002;
Smith, 2004; Fontes et al., 1991) to strengthen briquettes. In general, corn starch is used to produce the binder material; however,
in this work cassava (or manioka) starch was utilized because it
is widely produced in Brazil. The binder was prepared in the usual
manner; i.e., the starch was added to boiling water until polymer
molecules (gum or porridge) were formed (FAO, 1987; Smith,
2004). The briquettes were prepared in two different ways: (1)
mixing the charcoal powder with the gum (8% by weight) until a
homogeneous paste was formed; and (2) mixing charcoal powder,
starch (8% by weight) and water and heating to boiling until a paste
formed.
The cylindrical briquettes (/ = 30 mm) were pressed (Fig. 2)
using a manual uniaxial hydraulic press and a steel cylindrical
mold. An applied compression force of 5 tons was maintained for
1 min on each sample.
3. Results and discussion
According to industry data, the SCBFA in the gas washer exit has
40% humidity. The average concentrations of organic and inorganic materials obtained in the laboratory using an oven and balance to dry samples were 33% and 67%, respectively. These
results are close to those shown by TGA measurements (Fig. 3).
Considering the national sugar-cane production in 2008/2009
(BEN, 2009) and that each ton produces 6 kg of ash (FIESP/CIESP,
2001) containing 33% charcoal, the estimated volume of charcoal
that will be produced is greater than one million tons in the 2009
harvest. Because this research about charcoal in SCBA is new, no
reference for this value is available.

Fig. 2. Picture of the briquettes in different views.

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Fig. 3. Themogravimetric (TG) data of the SCBFA.

The y ash collected in the factory has a high moisture content

(3070%) depending on the process (lter press, belt press, extrusion or in natura) used to reduce moisture after a pass through
the gas washer. The y ash is classied in two fraction: ne charcoal powder (<1 mm) and gross charcoal (from 1 to 5 mm). This
particle size distribution was determined by passing the ash
through different sieves. Thermogravimetric analysis data shows
that the inorganic material is concentrated mainly in the ne fraction (<1 mm) separated using an 18 mesh (1 mm) screen. The briquettes were prepared by using the gross fraction (>1 mm).
Although the inorganic compounds are concentrated in the ne
fraction, they are present in the gross fraction that will produce ash
after briquette burning. Therefore, it is important to know the ash
composition and component concentrations for further processing.
The chemical composition of the y ash is shown in Table 1. A comparison of the chemical compositions of the sugar-cane bagasse
ash (SCBA) used in this work with other SCBA data in the literature
(Eriksson and Prior, 1990; Teixeira et al., 2008) show differences
due to variations in the soil where the sugar cane was grown. Most
of the ash comes from syngenetic minerals (minerals within the
plant tissue before it burns), reecting the mineralogical composition of the soil in which the plant material grew (Tixeira et al.,
2002). These chemical ash compositions are unchanged by the
combustion process, and the major phase in SCBA is crystalline silica (Teixeira et al., 2008).
Although the volume of charcoal is larger than the mineral volume, its weight represents 35% of the total y ash mass. Therefore, it is important to reduce the inorganic material to obtain a
better relationship between heat production and the charcoal mass
with a minor residual ash volume; e.g., to use this charcoal in steel
production, a maximum limit value (<12%) of ash in the charcoal
(or briquette) is required.
Preliminary compression tests in the axial cylinder direction
showed that the briquettes acquired greater density and mechanical resistance when the charcoal powder was ground to a very ne
grain size before the preparation of the paste. The mechanical
resistance to compression (MRC) is very good (>7 MPa), facilitating
the handling of the briquettes and the ability to store them in large
piles. A good mechanical resistance is important for the handling,

piling and transporting of the briquettes. This MRC value is near

the values obtained for briquettes produced using different kinds
of wood (Brito and Nucci, 1984). New studies are in progress to
examine different concentrations of binder and compression pressures for the best conditions during the production of the
briquettes.
In the last 5 years, many changes were instituted in the residue
collection process in the sugar-cane/alcohol industry, resulting in
residues with a lower humidity content and a higher volume of
water re-used by the process. TGA data show (Teixeira et al.,
2007) that the dried SCBFA in natura had only 20% organic material
and 77% residual mass (ash). Today with the use of lter and belt
presses, the charcoal concentration is in the order of 34% and
62% residual mass (ash) as is shown in Fig. 3.
Part of one briquette was submitted for TG analysis (Fig. 4). TGA
data show that the organic concentration in the briquette increased to 53% and the ash decreased to 35%. These changes in values are associated with the sieve process and the addition of the
binder (organic material). TGA data (shown in two peaks) are discussed after the next gure.
Fig. 5 displays thermal analysis results using DSC obtained for:
(a) a briquette prepared by boiling the mixture of charcoal, starch
and water (before pressing); and (b) a briquette obtained by pressing charcoal powder mixed with a binder (starch and water heated
at 100 C). Sample (a) demonstrates a doublet between 450 and
500 C; the rst peak is associated with the charcoal burning,
and the second peak is associated with the polymer burning. In
(b) there is only one large peak, indicating a blend formation with
only one peak burning, i.e., a more homogeneous charcoalpolymer mixture. After these results, all the samples were prepared
by the second method.
Curve (b) in Fig. 5 shows two nearby peaks at 300 and 500 C
that are in agreement with the loss of mass observed in the TG record (Fig. 4). These peaks indicate the presence of organic matter
not decomposed (cellulose and lignin) in the bulk of the charcoal.
The high volume of bagasse red and the high rate of ring probably did not carbonize the bulk of the larger particles of bagasse
farther from burning points.
The density of the briquettes measured with a balance and caliper varied from 0.91 to 1.33 g/cm3. These values are smaller than
the values obtained from eucalyptus charcoal (1.41 g/cm3) using
tar as a binder (Brito and Nucci, 1984) but are in good agreement
with the values (1.08 g/cm3) obtained using others kinds of binders
and wood (Fontes et al., 1991).
The caloric value (the mean of three samples) was 25,551 kJ/
kg, as determined by using a calorimeter according to the guide-

Table 1
Chemical composition (%) of the inorganic fraction in the ash by X-ray uorescence
XRF (Teixeira et al., 2008).

Ash

SiO2

Al2O3

Fe2O3

K2O

CaO

MgO

MnO

TiO2

P2O5

85.58

5.25

1.31

3.46

2.08

1.09

0.08

0.32

0.54

Fig. 4. Themogravimetric (TG) data of the briquette.

S.R. Teixeira et al. / Waste Management 30 (2010) 804807

807

We are grateful to Usina Alto Alegre for the samples and collaboration; Dr. A.A. Paccola and J.E. Gonalves (FCA/UNESP) for collaborating on the caloric value determination. We also thank
undergraduate students for assistance in preparing the samples.
References

Fig. 5. Thermograms (DSC) of the briquettes and binder: (a) charcoal + starch and
(b) charcoal + starch polymer.

lines of Brazilian normalization; the amount of residual ash was

13.2% (briquettes prepared with sieved charcoal, >1 mm).
Brazil possesses one of the largest charcoal-based industries in
the world, and charcoal represents the main wood fuel in demand
in the country. Brazilian steel and ferroalloy production demand
high volumes of charcoal. Consequently, this sector has diverted
an enormous amount of wood fuel resources into charcoal production. Households occupy second place in terms of wood fuel consumption in Brazil for domestic use (Brito, 1997). Therefore,
these kinds of briquettes can reduce the consumption of charcoal
taken from existing forests.
4. Conclusion
Results show that charcoal from sugar-cane bagasse y ash can
be used to produce briquettes. This kind of briquette is a new option of renewable fuel, and its utilization can reduce deforestation
for charcoal production or for use as wood fuel.
Results also show that the procedure adopted for the production of briquettes based on charcoal powder from the ash of sugar-cane bagasse and cassava starch as the binder is efcient,
yielding briquettes with properties that meet market technical
requirements.
Moreover, the most representative parameters are compatible
with or better than those parameters obtained utilizing other
sources of charcoal. The average briquette properties obtained
are: a caloric value of 25,551 kJ/kg, a density of 1.12 g/cm3, a
mechanical resistance to compression of >7 MPa and a residual
ash of 13.2% after burning.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank FUNDUNESP for the partial funding
and FAPESP for the laboratory nancial support (2008/04368-4).

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