Biomass briquetting

Agricultural or agro-industrial biomass is generally difficult to handle because of its bulky and scattered nature, low thermal efficiency and copious liberation of smoke during burning. Legal and administrative problems are also encountered with agro-industrial biomass. In order to achieve maximum and efficient exploitation of locally available resources, it is essential to compress them into manageable and compact pieces, which have a high thermal value per unit weight. This process is called biomass briquetting or pelleting. Compressed biomass briquettes are usually cylindrical in shape with a diameter between 30 to 90 mm and length varying between 100 to 400 mm. Briquetting consists of applying pressure to a mass of particles with or without a binder and converting it into compact aggregate.
Biomass densification, which is also known as briquetting, has been practiced for many years in several countries. Briquetting is one method, which can take care of pollution problems while using important industrial/ domestic energy resources. Normally bulk density of loose biomass is in the range of 0.05-0.02 g/cm3 and can be densified to briquettes of density 1.1-1.4 g/cm3.