Effect of Processing Variables on Compaction and Relaxation Ratio of Water Hyacinth Briquettes

Fuel wood collection has grave consequences on environment resulting in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), forest conservation and sustainable forest resources management. The selection of water hyacinth as alternative source of energy is an important way of managing the weed problem and contributing to environment management. The water hyacinth and plantain peels were milled into three particle sizes 0.5, 1.6 and 4.0mm, five binder levels 10, 20, 30, 40, 50% and four pressure levels 3, 5, 7 and 9MPa were used. Manually operated hydraulic press was used for the production of briquettes. The experimental design for this study was 5 x 3 x 4 Randomized Complete Block Design. ASABE standard methods were used to determine the moisture contents, compaction ratio and relaxation ratio of the briquettes. The minimum compaction ratio was obtained at pressure P1 (5.19±0.27) and the maximum at pressure P4 (6.80±0.36).The effect of binder on the compaction ratio ranged from 5.87±0.31 (B3) to 6.04±0.25 (B4) for all the five binder proportions utilized. The ANOVA revealed that there was significant difference among all the values obtained for compaction ratio at the various binder levels (P < 0.001).The values of compaction ratio obtained indicated more void in the compressed materials. This signifies more volume displacement which is good for packaging, storage and transportation and above all, it is an indication of good quality briquettes.