DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF BRIQUETTING MACHINE PDF REPORT DOWNLOAD

Briquetting technology is one of the renewable sources of energy that was devised to address problems regarding global warming, energy crisis, as well as solid waste management. Studies like that of Kaliyan and Morey (2009) show that varying the compression parameters during briquetting such as temperature and pressure affects the characteristics of the output briquettes such as combustion performance and durability. On that note, the proponents of this research made that as their motivation which eventually led to the development of an automated briquetting machine prototype for experimentation purposes that could bridge the gap between compression parameters and briquette characteristics.

The fabricated machine used a pressure switch and a band heater for its pressure and temperature variation mechanisms respectively while a PLC was utilized to make the machine’s operation automated. Moreover, the machine is composed of a mixing chamber intended for thorough mixing of the feedstock, a cylindrical mold where the feedstock would be briquetted, and a hydraulic system which is responsible for the mold’s movements as well as the compression mechanism of the machine. Based on the data collected, the machine demonstrated a tolerance of less than 10% and a return of investment of about 2 years when retrofitted for mass production. Furthermore, the machine is safe to use because it can be operated by simply using the buttons provided in its control panel and has an emergency stop button when emergency arises. In the end, the machine was able to form briquettes at varied pressure and temperature and could be used for future studies regarding briquetting parameters optimization.

Fossil fuels are the major source for energy.The excess use of these fuels will lead to serious

environmental issues like global warming and air pollution. Since the fossil fuels are getting depleted day by day,it is the high time to convert biomass wastes such as sawdust, coir pitch, coffee husk, rice husk etc., to useful biomass briquettes which will be the substitute for some of the fossil fuels. This paper focuses on the design and fabrication of briquetting machine which is portable and can be done at very low cost. It also focuses on the production of biomass briquettes using raw materials mainly sawdust and dry leaves with binding agents like coffee husk and wheat flour.

Also study is carried out to investigate the calorific values of the briquettes using bomb calorimeter. The results indicated that the briquettes made from sawdust, dry leaves and very small amount of wheat flour (binding agent) are compact, dry and have greater calorific value when compared to the briquettes made from sawdust, dry leaves and coffee husk (binding agent) are not strongly bonded and possesses slightly lower calorific value.

• 1. GRINDING UNIT: This unit consists of a Hopper, Motor, Grinder Blade, Sieve plate. The hopper is placed on the hollow circular disc and is supported by two vertical stands, which is placed diametrically opposite to each other. The blade grinder and sieve plate is placed inside the hopper. The motor required to rotate the grinding blades are mounted on the vertical support provided on the hollow disc.
• 2. CARRIER UNIT:This unit is consists of guide ways and sliding member , can move easily in the specified path to carries the grinded raw materials from the hopper to the cylinder (compressing unit). The guide way is attached to the thick hollow disc to which the legs are attached to that act as a support.Sliding member is rectangular box,it is used to carry the raw material from hopper to the cylinder.
• 3. COMPRESSING UNIT:It consists of a Telescopic jack, cylinder and a piston. The jack drives the piston inside the cylinder,here we are using a jack which upon rotation move the piston in and out of the cylinder. The piston and cylinder are machined to the close dimensional tolerance so that the piston moves easily inside the cylinder.The grinded raw materials are put in to the cylinder, these materials inside the cylinder are compressed into briquettes upon the application of force by the jack. Thus formed briquettes are taken out by pulling the plate at the top of the cylinder.

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