ÂŚDENSIFICATION
CONTRIBUTION
Limitations of 24/7 Operation of a Capacity Briquette Plant For Binderless Fibrous Biomass How to improve briquetting operations to efficiently densify fibrous agricultural residues from crops, horticulture operations and forests. BY PRIYA JAIN AND A.K. KHATER
P
ress-to-log technology in North America and binderless briquetting technology in Europe were essentially designed to work with granular wood waste such as sawdust, wood chips and bark. Wood waste generated by wood processing plants is mostly dry (15 to 20 percent moisture) so briquetting plants are used primarily for waste
disposal. And in developing countries, most of the briquetting plants installed between 1985 and 2000, utilized residue from the agricultural processing industry such as rice husks, ground nut shells and husks from various other plants. Preliminary testing on almost 200 of these 90-millimeter (mm)-diameter presses with 15-cubic-meters per-hour
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52 BIOMASS POWER & THERMAL | NOVEMBER 2011
displacement indicates that they are under-designed for new-generation crop briquetting of the fibrous biomass found in Europe and North America. The challenge is to improve briquetting operations to efficiently utilize fibrous agricultural residues from crops, horticulture operations and forests. The limitations of briquetting fibrous biomass utilizing briquette presses and processes designed for granular biomass are addressed herein.