DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF A BRIQUETTE MAKING MACHINE

Abstract

The mechanical compaction process for increasing the density of bulky material is referred to as briquetting. Briquetting of agricultural waste represents one of the possible solutions to the local energy shortages in many developing countries. It constitutes a positive solution to the problem of increasing rates of desertification in many areas worldwide. This study puts forward a machine of simple design which could be manufactured locally in any part of the country and has high productivity. The study presents a detailed design of the briquette making machine. The prototype was made and tested in Niger state in Nigeria. The low-pressure briquette making machine is powered by a hydraulic jack which is easy to operate and thus can be operated by a large range of people. It is a batch operational process which extrudes 16 briquettes per batch. Each batch which comprises of loading the cylinder, closing the machine lid and pumping the jack hydraulic jack took between 3 to 6 minutes depending on the operator. Bath saw dust and rice hull were used to test the developed machine and it was observed that the saw dust had a higher compression ratio than the rice hull of 3:1. Both
briquette fuels produced were found to dry in relatively short time due to their size.