EFFECT OF BINDER TYPES AND AMOUNT ON PHYSICAL AND COMBUSTION CHARACTERISTICS

Current energy shortage and environmental issues have lead to exploitation of renewable energy resources especially in Kenya that includes agricultural residues. These residues are available, indigenous and are environmental friendly but some can not directly in combustion process due high moisture content and low volumetric energy unless by briquetting. The research focussed on evaluating the physical and combustion characteristics of rice husk-bagasse-charcoal dust composite briquettes. Rice husk and bagasse were carbonized in a muffle furnace at 450 oC, grounded, sieved and mixed with charcoal dust at different mixture ratios. The mixtures were bonded with different types of binder at varying amount before briquetting at 5 MPa using hydraulic press into different sizes. Physical and combustion tests were conducted according to standard procedures. The binder types and ratios had effect on the density, calorific values, ignition and burning time that could be attributed to the incombustibles matter. It was concluded that briquettes bonded by molasses binder had better combustion characteristics. There is need to study the use of other binder materials