Production of briquettes with Jatropha curcas shell and sugar cane bagasse

Abstract

One of the alternatives to benefit the agroforestry residues is by densification processes. Thus, the goal of this analysis was to evaluate the raw material and briquettes quality produced from the remains of the sugarcane bagasse and Jatropha curcas shell. The biomass was dried and set at 12% of moisture content and, afterwards, had the treatments prepared. T1 – 100 % sugar cane bagasse; T2 – 100 % Jatropha curcas shell; T3 – 75 % sugar cane bagasse + 25 % Jatropha curcas shell; T4 – 75 % Jatropha curcas shell + 25 % sugar cane bagasse; and T5 – 50 % sugar cane bagasse + 50 % Jatropha curcas shell. The briquettes were produced with the assistance of a hydraulic briquette machine at temperature of 80 ± 2 ºC and pressure of 140 kgf cm^-2, kept for a period of five minutes. The main energy and physic mechanical aspects of the briquettes were bulk density, energy density, volumetric expansion, dynamic resistance and tensile strength by diametric compression. It was confirmed that the briquettes produced from 100 % Jatropha curcas shell showed superior energy density, they were also more resistant to tensile strength by diametric compression and to the dynamic resistance test, they even presented higher volumetric expansion compared to the ones produced from 50 % sugarcane bagasse + 50 % Jatropha curcas shell.