From biowaste to briquettes

Long description

Our social enterprise is manufacturing clean, user-friendly, affordable and sustainable briquettes. Use of briquettes is instrumental in poverty alleviation for middle and low income earners. The preferred briquette qualities are longer length of burning time, high thermal heat, less smoke, affordability and shorter time to ignite. Good briquettes should have good combustion properties such as high calorific value, low ash content, low volatile matter and low emission characteristics. Briquetting is the process of converting low bulk density biomass into high density and energy-concentrated fuel. Cohesion is achieved by low pressure agglomeration with the use of binders like molasses, medium pressure compaction with a lower binder percentage, or high pressure compaction with little or no binder. Briquettes should have the correct mixing ratio of the biomass materials and binders. Research and development of shape, size and feedstock is required to ensure the product is best suited to the target market. Briquettes are made from biodegradable matter such as water hyacinth, bagasse and municipal waste. More recently, briquetting has been motivated by a desire to mitigate energy loss, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions associated with inefficient burning or disposal of biomass residues. Uptake of briquettes can help achieve wider objectives such as curbing the contribution that conventional charcoal makes to forest degradation and deforestation. Alternative cooking fuels such as kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and electricity are too expensive for most households and public institutions such as schools or hospitals to consider. The value proposition lies in convenience, safety, affordability.

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