The Production of Briquette Charcoal from Coconut Shell and Palm Shell as A Renewable Energy Source

Abstract

The usage of fossil fuels has raised the environmental concerns years by years. The alternative ways to reduce the usage of fossil fuels is by using the biomass product. Biomass carbon production is currently a large industrial source of energy conversion. The safest and cost-friendly product of biomass are using the agricultural waste. By turning the waste into energy, the environmental issues and the amount of wastes can be reduced purposely. This study is focusing on the use of coconut shell as a substitute material in briquette charcoal. The objective of this study is to determine the combustion properties of the coconut shell as a briquette charcoal. Besides, the purpose of this study is to identify the mechanical properties of briquette made from biomass product in carbonization process as a replacement material of fossil fuels. This study is also conducted to investigate the potential of coconut shell and palm shell as an alternative to produce briquette charcoal. The characteristics from the composition were 1.0m toughness of the briquette, 360 minutes duration of burning with optimum temperature of 788 ˚C, 40 seconds duration of ignition, 4787 kcal/kg calorific value, 3.48% percentage of ash content, 9.32% percentage of moisture content, 60.28% percentage of volatile matter, 26.92% percentage of fixed carbon, 0.217 kN compaction force and 1.27 g/cm3 were conducted in accordance with the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards. Furthermore, the organic binder is selected in this project where the cassava starch and water are used. Towards the end of this study, the briquette charcoal produced were enhanced the quality of the product in terms of the physical and combustion properties.