Design and Performance Test of a Small Scale Crusher and Briquetting Equipment to Produce Fuel Briquettes from Municipal Solid Waste by Densification Technology

It is generally acknowledged that burning of fossil fuels and deforestation are major contributors to the global warming and anthropogenic climate change. Behind coal and oil, biomass is the third largest energy resource in the world. Biomass from plants can serve as an alternative renewable and carbonneutral raw material for the production of energy. One of the least-expensive biomass resources are the municipal solid waste. To be suitable used as a solid fuel, the solid waste should be densified in order to increase its density. Pelleting, briquetting, extrusion and agglomeration processing are methods commonly used to achieve densification. The goal of this research work is to design a small scale crushing and briquette-making equipment which is appropriate to produce fuel briquettes from municipal solid waste. The design analysis of the crusher resulted in 1,5 hP power consumption for laboratory scale crusher. The result of the performance test show that the crusher capacity is about 25 kg/h and the dimension of the solid waste cut is in the range of 6,1 – 6,8 mm which is suitable for fuel briquette formation. Bulk density briquettes produced is still low at 113.7 kg/m3 due to low compression resulted by human power. The resulting fine after shaking the briquetting is quite small , i.e. 9.99%, showed that tapioca starch is acts as a pretty good adhesive. The result of water content measurements indicate the briquette meet the water content standard for briquettes from solid waste, while calorific value obtained from the measurement has also already met the minimum standards of caloric content for briquette originating from solid wast