Briquette

Some charcoal briquettes

Ogatan, Japanese charcoal briquettes made from sawdust.

Straw or hay briquettes

Rentan, Japanese Coal briquette

A briquette (or briquet) is a block of flammable matter used as fuel to start and maintain a fire. Common types of briquettes are charcoal briquettes and biomass briquettes.

Constituents of charcoal briquettes

Charcoal briquettes sold commercially for cooking food can include:^[1][2]

• Wood charcoal (fuel)
• Mineral char (fuel)
• Mineral carbon (fuel)
• Limestone (ash colorant)
• Starch (binder)
• Borax (release agent)
• Sodium nitrate (accelerant)
• Sawdust
• Wax (some brands: binder, accelerant, ignition facilitator).
• Chaff (Rice chaff and peanut chaff)

Some briquettes are compressed and dried brown coal extruded into hard blocks. This is a common technique for low rank coals. They are typically dried to 12-18% moisture, and are primarily used in household and industry.

Peat briquettes

In Ireland, peat briquettes are a common type of solid fuel, largely replacing sods of raw peat as a domestic fuel. These briquettes consist of shredded peat, compressed to form a virtually smokeless, slow-burning, easily stored and transported fuel. Although often used as the sole fuel for a fire, they are also used to quickly and easily light a coal fire.

Biomass briquettes

Main article: Biomass briquettes

Biomass briquettes are made from agricultural waste and are a replacement for fossil fuels such as oil or coal, and can be used to heat boilers in manufacturing plants, and also have applications in developing countries. Biomass briquettes are a renewable source of energy and avoid adding fossil carbon to the atmosphere.

A number of companies in India have switched from furnace oil to biomass briquettes to save costs on boiler fuels. The use of biomass briquettes is predominant in the southern parts of India, where coal and furnace oil are being replaced by biomass briquettes. A number of units in Maharashtra (India) are also using biomass briquettes as boiler fuel. Use of biomass briquettes can earn Carbon Credits for reducing emissions in the atmosphere. Lanxess India and a few other large companies are supposedly using biomass briquettes for earning Carbon Credits by switching their boiler fuel. Biomass briquettes also provide more calorific value/kg and save around 30-40 percent of boiler fuel costs.

A popular biomass briquette emerging in developed countries takes a waste produce such as sawdust, compresses it and then extrudes it to make a reconsistuted log that can replace firewood. It is a similar process to forming a wood pellet but on a larger scale. There are no binders involved in this process. The natural lignin in the wood binds the particles of wood together to form a solid. Burning a wood briquette is far more efficient than burning firewood. Moisture content of a briquette can be as low as 4%, whereas green firewood may be as high as 65%.

For example parameters of fuel briquettes made by extrusion from sawdust in Ukraine:

Parameter	Value
Briquette density, t/m³	1,0-1,2
Heat content, kilocalories/kg	4600-4900
Ash content, %	0,5-1,5

The extrusion production technology of briquettes is the process of extrusion screw wastes (straw, sunflower husks, buckwheat, etc.) or finely shredded wood waste (sawdust) under high pressure when heated from 160 to 350 C °. As shown in the table above the quality of such briquets, especially heat content, is much higher comparing with other methods like using piston presses.

Sawdust briquettes have developed over time with two distinct types: those with holes through the centre, and those that are solid. Both types are classified as briquettes but are formed using different techniques. A solid briquette is manufactured using a piston press that compresses sandwiched layers of sawdust together. Briquettes with a hole are produced with a screw press. The hole is from the screw thread passing through the centre, but it also increases the surface area of the log and aids efficient combustion.

Since 2009 in North India biomass briquette consumption has seen new dimensions. Many companies like Nishant Bioenergy and Ekta Bioenergy in Rajasthan are leading in the briquette supply and manufacturing.

See also

• Biomass briquettes
• Biomass Cook Stoves
• Charcoal
• Energy in Victoria
• Wood briquette

Notes

1. ^ Joe O'Connell. Kingsford Brand Charcoal Ingredients. California Barbecue Association website. Retrieved May 11 2007.
2. ^ All About Charcoal. virtualweberbullet.com. Retrieved May 11 2007.

External links

• How charcoal briquettes are made.
• Legacy Foundation - created an appropriate technology briquette maker.
• Holey Briquette Gassifier Stove Development, Richard Stanley, Kobus Venter 14 August 2003 on BioEnergy Lists.
• Briquetting: An Answer to Desertification, Health Problems, Unemployment and Reforestation in Developing Communities - summary of 2003 seminar.
• Lucifer Logs - an interesting history of the two types of briquettes