INVESTIGATION ON THERMAL CHARACTERISTIC OF BANANA WASTE/ WOOD SAWDUST BRIQUETTE

Abstract

Current consumption of fossil fuel has raised questions on related topics related to environmental concern and global warming which need to be minimized as per regulations in various countries. This has resulted in the development of various fossil fuel alternatives such as recycling biomass into energy sources to diversify energy supply. This study aims to produce solid fuel briquettes from sawdust and banana waste including pseudo-stem, leaves, and banana peel. This is to take advantage of the currently untapped and abundant resource of banana waste in the agriculture sector and timber industry. In this research, banana peel, molasses and starch are chosen as a binder for briquette production. This project aims to study the combustion characteristic of solid biomass briquette and optimize the control factor using Taguchi method. Based on Taguchi statistical analysis, the combustion characteristic is mainly influenced by banana waste ratio, sawdust ratio and sawdust ratio. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) done on the samples exhibited four major stages of mass losses with Briquette 1 consisting of 30% banana peel binder, 0:1 Banana stem: Banana leaves ratio and 10 % sawdust weight possessing the least mass residue. This combustion analysis gave four parameters which were ash content (3 – 11 %), volatile matter (89 – 97 %), moisture content (16.5 – 44 %) and dry matter basis (56 - 83.5 %) where some of the briquette sample falls within the standard range of ISO 17225-1:2020. Based on experimental results the binder ratio exhibited the most contribution to all combustion properties. To minimize ash content and maximize volatile matter the type of binders is the least significant factor. However, the