Development and Study of Fuel Briquettes from Areca Leaves: A Potential Renewable Energy Source.

In rustic regions, areca leaves are more often than hacked and then discarded at the base of the areca plants, or used as momentary material for temporary overhead. Here, in this work as to explore the significance of areca leaf as an alternative for fuel, areca leaf briquettes have been prepared using different dimension leaves adding sawdust and wheat flour as additive and binder correspondingly. In order to assess the presence of moisture, ash, volatile matter, and fixed carbon components in the prepared areca leaf briquettes, proximate analysis was performed. It was conducted as per standard IS1350-1 so as to estimate the percentage of sulphur, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen. In this experiment, the gross calorific value of the areca leaves was found as per IS1448-7 standard. From analysis, areca leaf briquettes of 850μ size have the highest GCV of 14.57MJ/kg, compared with briquettes of 1700μ and above, 600μ, and 425μ. Even the results of proximate and ultimate analysis are satisfactory. The physical-chemical characteristics of the briquette depicted low moisture content (8.08%) and low ash content (1.47%). The briquettes are also eco-friendly because of low sulphur (0.65%) and nitrogen (0.61%) content. Thus, making briquettes using areca leaves of 850μ size by means of sawdust as additive can make a high-quality biomass fuel used for households and industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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