Heat Energy Potential of Value Added Agro-Waste Biomass Fuel

In this work, the use palm oil mill effluent (POME) as a binder in briquetting saw dust was evaluated. The POME is considered a harmful waste for the environment if discharged untreated, because stinks and releases green house gases. The effluent is a thick brownish liquid slush that contains high solids, oil and grease. Saw dusts from wood cutting in wood mills are considered biomass wastes that can be fully utilized as a renewable energy sources. This experiment established the optimum proportion of palm oil sludge as saw dust binder, and determines its calorific value. The palm oil sludge was collected from a palm oil processing cottage industry at Ago Iwoye, Ado-Ekiti. Saw dust sample was collected from Ogo-Oluwa wood mill in Ado-Ekiti. Saw dust and POME were mixed together in varying proportions. The biomass mixture was compacted into annular disc with hydraulic press machine. The properties of the resulting briquette of varying POME weight percent were assessed using standard testing methods. Briquette with appropriate binding and compaction at 80 percent weight POME has 90.21 percentage volatile matter, 6.29% lowest fixed carbon, 3.5% ash content and high heating value at 32948.94 kcal/kg. The burning characteristics indicated that all briquettes had excellent burning characteristics except of course briquette with low POME