Investigation of Areca Leaves as a Biomass Fuel by the Method of Briquetting

ABSTRACT A huge amount of agro waste is produced in India annually, which is destroyed or burnt in loose form resulting in air pollution. In this paper, investigation was carried out to convert areca leaves, which is a cash crop of farmers in Karnataka, into briquettes and to study its various characteristics. Areca leaves were collected from a nearby farm, cut, dried, milled and sieved to a size of 600μ. These areca leaves were mixed with coconut coir and wheat flour which acted as a binder and additive respectively in 2:1:1 ratio and compacted to produce briquettes. Ultimate and proximate analysis was done according to IS 1350 and gross calorific value was done as per IS 1448-7. The compaction, relaxation and density ratio were determined using ASAE standards. From analysis areca leave briquettes had a gross calorific value of 3113.15Kcal/Kg, which was sufficient to produce enough heat. The initial, maximum and relaxed densities were 0.1992 gm/cm3, 0.7506 gm/cm3 and 0.275gm/cm3 respectively. The relaxed, compaction and density ration were 2.75, 3.76 and 0.366 respectively. Other properties which makes up for a good biomass briquettes like, percentage of oxygen, carbon, volatile matter, sulphur, nitrogen, and moisture were within the permissible limits. This experimental investigation concluded that, by using areca leaves for making briquettes, it could make a good biomass fuel for household and industries.