An investigation of physical and energy properties of briquette fuel mixed with cotton dust (CD) and carbonized cotton dust (CCD)

Despite of its pollution and un-safety is cost well established. Hence, an attempt is made to produce fuel briquettes from cotton dust waste which locally available in weaving cotton manufacturers as alternative sources of energy production. The briquettes were evaluated for moisture, ash content, fixed carbon and compressive strength. The various ratios of cotton dust (CD): wood dust(WD):starch:water 20:0:20:60, 16:4:20:60, 12:8:20:60, 8:12:20:60 4:16:20:60 and 20*:0:20:60 (* = CCD) (% by weight) were investigated for physical and energy properties. The dimensional of hexagon briquette specimen was 5 cm (outer diameter) and 2.5 cm (hollow inner diameter) with the height of 10 cm. The experimental results indicated that cotton dust can be used as fuel material for briquette. The briquette made with ratio of 4:16:20:60 gave the highest heat energy with 3,960 kcal. It also had the lowest ignition time with 9.10 min/2g. While, the 16:4:20:60 had the highest compressive strength at 28 days with 2.36 N/mm². For ignition temperature result, it found that ignition temperature of briquette was in the range of 280 °C to 325 °C. The briquette specimen made with ratio of 16:4:20:60 (% by weight) gave the lowest ignition temperature among briquette specimens. For ignition times, it found that the briquette specimen made with ratio of 20:0:20:60 (% by weight) had the longest of ignition time which took 10:40 min/2g to ignite.