INVESTIGATION ON COMBUSTION PROPERTIES OF COAL BRIQUETTE BLENDS FROM MANGONUT SHELLS AND EMPTY FRUIT BUNCHES

This work investigated the combustion properties of coal briquette blends from mangonut shells and empty fruit bunches. The coal briquette blends were prepared by blending pulverized mangonut shells and empty fruit bunches with coal, the ratio of coal to the biomass used were 100:0, 80:20, 60:40, 40:60, 20:80, 0;100. The mixture was treated with starch (which serves as binder) and calcium hydroxide (which serves as a desulphurizing agent) before briquetting. Proximate analyses and combustion properties (calorific value, ignition time and water boiling time) of the briquettes produced were analyzed and compared to that of coal briquette (100:0). ANOVA was used in the analysis of the differences between the mean results. The proximate analyses results showed 7.20% moisture content for coal, ranged from 7.40%-7.90% for coal empty fruit bunch (CE) briquettes and 6.18-7.12% for coal mango nut shell (CM) briquettes. Ash content of coal was 14.11% and ranged from 9.42%-7.40% for CE and 9.00%-5.41% for CM. The calorific values were 28.2MJ/kg, 24.7MJ/kg-21.8MJ/kg and 25.9MJ/kg-22.9MJ/kg for coal briquette, CE and CM briquettes respectively, and varied significantly (p<0.05). The results obtained showed that coal briquette blends from empty fruit bunches and mango nut shell can be used for small scale industrial and domestic cooking. Keywords: Coal briquette blends, empty fruit bunch, mangonut shell, water boiling test, ignition time.