Biomass and Bioenergy 18 (2000) 223±228

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Characteristics of some biomass briquettes prepared under

modest die pressures
Ooi Chin Chin, Kamal M. Siddiqui*
Universiti Sains Malaysia, 31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia
Received 29 June 1998; received in revised form 22 September 1999; accepted 1 November 1999

Abstract

Biomass material, including sawdust, rice husks, peanut shells, coconut ®bres and palm fruit ®bres, was densi®ed
into briquettes at modest pressures of 5±7 MPa using a piston and die type of press. The briquettes were tested to
evaluate their relaxation behaviour, mechanical strength and burning characteristics. The sawdust briquettes were
found to have better overall handling characteristics. But briquettes of di€erent biomass materials required di€erent
optimum conditions of fabrication and generally showed a promising potential for further development. 7 2000
Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Biomass; Briquette; Densi®cation; Properties; Burning rates; Sawdust; Rice husk; Peanut; Coconut; Palm

1. Introduction quality of briquettes and to investigate whether

Malaysia produces large amounts of biowaste
material every year. This includes palm fruit
bunches, coconut shells and ®bres, peanut shells,
rice husks and sawdust. Some of this biomass is
just burnt in air; some like rice husk are mostly
dumped into huge mountains of waste. One of
the ways to utilize this biomass e€ectively as fuel,
would be to densify it into briquettes. Wood and
charcoal are already being briquetted in Malaysia
[1]. The objective of this work was to determine
a set of parameters required to produce the best
* Corresponding author. Fax: +05-367-7442.
E-mail address: kmust@hotmail.com (K.M. Siddiqui).
these briquettes could be made in rural areas
using hand-presses as part of the small scale
industry.
2. Experimental
A manually operated piston and die press,
with an internal diameter of 30 mm, was fabri-
cated with a pressure-sensing element. The par-
ameters investigated were die pressure, pressure
dwell time, moisture and binder contents. The
briquettes were also evaluated for their dura-
bility, mechanical strength, handling character-
istics, relaxation behaviour and the combustion

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224 O.C. Chin, K.M. Siddiqui / Biomass and Bioenergy 18 (2000) 223±228

Table 1
Biowaste sizes and calori®c value

Biowaste material Diameter range for 60% collected particles (mm) HCV (MJ/kg)

Sawdust 0.3±0.85 14.99

Rice husk 0.1±0.18 14.77
Peanut shell 0.15±0.5 17.55
Coconut ®bre 0.10±0.5 17.74
Palm ®bre Below 0.15 mm (5 mm long) 16.84

rate. Biomass such as rice husks, peanut shells,
coconut ®bres and palm ®bres needed some pro-
cessing to reduce the particle size, before it could
be briquetted. The size range of particles after
processing and the calori®c value (HCV) of the
biowaste material are given in Table 1. To make
briquettes, usually 4 g of the material was com-
pacted under a modest pressure of up to 7 MPa
(70 bar). This range of pressure was also chosen
so that the briquettes could be pressed manually
using a hand press. Also from the literature, this
range of pressure was said to represent a distinct
phase where density increase was considered lin-
ear [2].
3. Results
3.1. E€ect of die pressure on relaxation behaviour
and density
After the briquette was removed from the die,
its length recovery or relaxation in length was
measured with time, varying from 2 min to 1
week. Generally it was found that the maximum
relaxation occurred within 10 min after the com-
paction pressure was removed followed by a
gradually decreasing relaxation for about 2 h for
all types of biowaste briquettes. Also as the die
pressure increased from 0.5 to 7 MPa, the length
relaxation became smaller. It was found that rice
husk had the smallest relaxation whereas coconut
®bres relaxed the most.
After one week, the measured relaxed length
was used to calculate the stable or relaxed den-
sity of the briquette. Fig. 1 shows the relaxed
density of briquettes of various materials as a
function of die pressure. The shape of the curves
is similar to the ones obtained by Wamukonya
and Jenkins [3] although the quantitative values
of relaxation in length are di€erent, perhaps
because of di€erent values of die pressure.
Although Osobov [4], O'Dogherty and
Wheeler [5], Faborode and O'Callaghan [6] and

Fig. 1. Relationship between relaxed density and die pressure for di€erent briquettes.
 O.C. Chin, K.M. Siddiqui / Biomass and Bioenergy 18 (2000) 223±228 225

Table 2 34 mm diameter. A piece of string of 5 mm di-

Relationship between die pressure and relaxed density for var-
ameter was tied around the briquette at its mid-
ious biomass briquettes
point. The other end of the string was passed on
Type of biomass a b a pulley with a spring load tied to it. The shear
force needed to break the briquette was read
Sawdust 78.3 185.6 directly from the scale of the spring. For this test
Rice husk 20.5 344.1 it was made sure by visual inspection that the
Peanut shell 36.5 415.4
Coconut ®bre 60.6 54.1 briquette was uniform in texture and free of
Palm ®bre 67.1 1.3 cracks.
The shear strength of the pellets increased as
the die pressure increased. Table 3 gives the
O'Dogherty [7] have proposed relationships shear strength results for various biowaste ma-
between pressure and relaxed density, we found a terials. The sawdust briquettes were found to be
di€erent exponential relationship between die the most durable and are less likely to crumble
pressure, P in bar, and relaxed density, D in kg/ during transportation and burning.
m3, of the form
D ˆ a ln P ‡ b, …1†
3.3. E€ect of die pressure on combustion rate of
where a and b are empirical constants. Table 2 briquettes
gives the values of these constants.
The density ratio in this paper has been The burning rate of a briquette was measured
de®ned as by mounting it in a burning chamber. The burn-
ing chamber had a rectangular shape with glass
…initial density of the briquetteÿrelaxed density of the briquette†
the initial density of the briquette : walls and air vents at the bottom and the top.
The pellet was mounted at a slightly elevated
For rice husks it was 0.07 whereas for coconut stand and its burning rate was measured visually
®bres it was 0.71. Sawdust had a density ratio of against a vertical scale mounted at the back. The
0.2 compared to palm ®bre of 0.41 and peanut burning chamber was placed on a mechanical
shells of 0.25. balance. The sample was ignited from the top
and the reduction in its weight was recorded
3.2. E€ect of die pressure on shear strength of until the whole briquette was burnt. The combus-
briquettes tion of the briquette was carried out in atmos-
pheric conditions. Fig. 2 gives the combustion
In order to ®nd the shear strength of briquettes rates of briquettes as a function of die pressure.
a simple test was devised. A briquette was placed All the briquettes were found to obey an
in a stand with a hole of 12 mm depth and empirical burning rate law of the form

Table 3
Relationship between shear strength and die pressure of briquettes

Biomass briquettes Shear strength (N)

10 bar 20 bar 30 bar 40 bar 50 bar 100 bar

Sawdust 27.5 47.7 67.7 79.2 86.9 95.7

Rice husk 1.2 1.6 1.8 2.4 2.5 4.6
Peanut shell 1.3 3.0 4.5 4.9 5.2 6.7
Coconut ®bre 10.0 15.0 30.0 46.0 54.0 73.3
Palm ®bre 10.0 15.0 22.0 26.0 28.0 36.2
226 O.C. Chin, K.M. Siddiqui / Biomass and Bioenergy 18 (2000) 223±228

Fig. 2. Relationship between combustion rate and die pressure.

m_ ˆ apn …2† increased until an optimum reduction in height

. was achieved. Table 5 summarizes the overall
where m is the mass burning rate in g/min, P is
the compaction pressure in bar, a and n are
empirical constants. The values of a and n for
various biomass briquettes are given in Table 4.
Generally the combustion rates for sawdust bri-
quettes were found to be the lowest at di€erent
compaction pressures.
3.4. Dwell time
To measure the e€ect of dwell time on the
relaxation of briquettes, known quantities of
biowaste material was subject to a constant 4
MPa pressure for di€erent dwell times up to
60 s. The relaxation in length of the briquette
after ejection was measured at di€erent time
intervals varying from 2 min to 1 week.
It was observed that the relaxed length of the
briquettes was reduced when the dwell time was
Table 4
Relationship between combustion rate and die pressure for
various biomass briquettes
relaxation of briquettes as a function of dwell
time. From the table one may conclude that a
dwell time of 20±40 s would generally produce a
briquette with the least percentage relaxation
with time. However, it may not be possible to
give one simple explanation regarding the occur-
rence of this minimal relaxation.
The increase in dwell time also resulted in a
slight increase in shear strength, which was in-
itially exponential but became asymptotic around
a dwell time of 60±70 s. It was also observed that
there is a power law relationship between dwell
time and the combustion rate of briquettes of the
form
m_ ˆ atÿb , …3†
where a and b are empirical constants and t is
the dwell time in seconds. The value of a varies
between 1.43 for sawdust to 0.4 for coconut
®bres, and the value of b between 0.31 for saw-
dust to ÿ0.06 for coconut ®bres.

Type of biomass a n
3.5. E€ect of binder on the durability of briquettes
Sawdust 2.007 ÿ0.357
Rice husk 1.270 ÿ0.315 The binders used for most biomass briquettes
Peanut shell 1.045 ÿ0.267
were molasses and starch, except for the case of
Coconut ®bre 1.095 ÿ0.270
Palm ®bre 0.991 ÿ0.291
rice husks where water was found to be a better
binding agent. Increasing the amount of binder
 O.C. Chin, K.M. Siddiqui / Biomass and Bioenergy 18 (2000) 223±228 227

Table 5
Overall relaxation behaviour of biomass briquettes

Dwell time Percentage overall relaxation

(s) Sawdust Rice husk Peanut shell Coconut ®bre Palm ®bre

10 9.00 15.2 28.9 82.9 55.9

20 6.5 13.5 24.4 75.2 51.8
40 11.0 12.1 34.1 70.7 66.4
60 8.8 14.4 28.3 81.4 40.6

increased the relaxed density, durability and the
shear strength of the briquettes.
Table 6 gives the relaxed density of briquette
as a function of binder content (% by weight).
The shear strength generally increased with
increasing ratio of the binder. However, for each
type of briquette, there was an optimum amount
of binder by weight arrived at after consider-
ations of relaxed density, relaxation behaviour
and shear strength. The optimum amounts were
found to be
Sawdust: 25%; Peanut shell: 10%;
Coconut fibre: 30%; Palm fibre: 10%
Using these optimum quantities of the binder,
the relaxation behaviour of di€erent biomass bri-
quettes was compared. It was found that the
coconut ®bre had the largest relaxation in length
followed by palm ®bre, whereas peanut shell bri-
quettes had the least relaxation in length.
Fig. 3 shows the e€ect of binder content on
the combustion rate, which increases with
increasing binder content.
3.6. E€ect of moisture content
In these tests, the moisture content in biomass
was varied from 5 to 30% on dry basis prior to
its compaction. It was found that relaxed density,
D, can be expressed as a function of moisture
content, mw, according to the relation proposed
by O'Dogherty and Wheeler [5]
D ˆ a exp…ÿcmw † …4†
where a and c are empirical constants. Table 7
lists the values of a and c.
Generally, briquettes with a moisture-content
of around 20% showed the least relaxation. This
is in agreement with the work of Smith et al. [8]
on briquetting of wheat straw.
4. Conclusions
From the experiments carried out, it was gen-
erally found that as die pressure, dwell time and
binder content increased, the quality of briquettes
improved. However, this was not necessarily true

Table 7
Table 6 Relationship between moisture content and relaxed density
Relaxed density in kg/m3 of biomass briquettes with binder for various biomass briquettes
content
Type of briquettes a c
Biomass 5% 10% 20% 40%
Sawdust 415.2 0.43
Sawdust 462 446 442 447 Rice husk 608.4 1.82
Peanut shells 547 555 560 572 Peanut shell 612.1 ÿ0.24
Coconut ®bre 157 152 134 141 Coconut ®bre 200.1 1.42
Palm ®bre 192 210 214 216 Palm ®bre 349.5 1.72
228 O.C. Chin, K.M. Siddiqui / Biomass and Bioenergy 18 (2000) 223±228
Fig. 3. Combustion rate of briquettes as a function of binder content.
of the moisture content: briquettes at intermedi-
ate moisture content performed better.
Various types of binders were tested in
order to determine the most suitable binding
agent. Starch and molasses are good binders
because of their availability and low price. For
rice husks, water rather than molasses was
found to be a good binding agent.
The burning rates of briquettes increased
with dwell time, as well as, binder content.
However, the e€ect of moisture on the burning
rates of the briquettes did not follow a con-
sistent behaviour.
The dwell time a€ected the relaxed density
or the rebound of the briquette. The relax-
ation in length of most biomass materials
decreased with dwell time until an optimum
value was reached. Also, as the die pressure
increased, the relaxation in briquettes was
reduced.
Of the ®ve biomass materials briquetted, the
sawdust briquettes were found to have the best
handling characteristics in terms of storage and
lack of deterioration.
Generally, briquettes of biomass materials
show a lot of promise as a potential source of
fuel. However, each biowaste material briquette
requires di€erent optimum conditions and sub-
sequent work should concentrate on optimizing
the fabrication processes for their industrial use.
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