A briquette 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: Wood charcoal
Mineral char Mineral carbon
Limestone Starch
Borax Sodium nitrate
Sawdust Wax.
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
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 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:
(MJ = Megajoules.
3.6 MJ equals 1 kWh.)
The extrusion production technology of briquettes is the process of extrusion screw wastes or
finely shredded wood waste 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.
Use in China
Throughout China, cylindrical briquettes, called "fēng wō méi" or "Mei" or "liàn
tàn", are used in purpose-built cookers.
The origin of "Mei" is "Rentan" of Japan.
Rentan was invented in Japan in the 19th century, and spread to Manchukuo, Korea and China in
the first half of the 20th century.
There were many Rentan factories in Manchukuo and Pyongyang.
Although Rentan went out of use in Japan after the 1970s, it is still popular in China, Korea
and Vietnam.
The cookers are simple, ceramic vessels with metal exteriors.
Two types are made: the single, or triple briquette type, the latter holding the briquettes
together side by side.
These cookers can accommodate a double stack of cylinders.
A small fire of tinder is started, upon which the cylinder(s) is placed.
When a cylinder is spent, another cylinder is placed on top using special tongs, with
the one below igniting it.
The fire can be maintained by swapping spent cylinders for fresh ones, and retaining a
still-glowing spent cylinder.
Each cylinder lasts for over an hour.
These cookers are used to cook, or simmer, pots of tea, eggs, soups, stews, etc.
The cylinders are delivered, usually by cart, to businesses, and are very inexpensive.
Paper briquettes Paper briquettes are the byproduct of a briquettor,
which compresses shredded paper material into a small cylindrical form.
Briquettors are often sold as add-on systems to existing disintegrator or rotary knife
mill shredding systems.
The NSA has a maximum particle size regulation for shredded paper material that is passed
through a disintegrator or rotary knife mill, which typically does not exceed 1/8” square.
This means that material exiting a disintegrator is the appropriate size for compression into
paper briquettes, as opposed to strip-cut shredders which produce long sheets of paper.
After being processed through the disintegrator, paper particles are typically passed through
an air system to remove dust and unwanted magnetic materials before being sent into
the briquettor.
The air system may also be responsible for regulating moisture content in the waste particles,
as briquetting works optimally within a certain range of moisture.
Studies have shown that the optimal moisture percentage for shredded particles is 18% for
paper and 22% for wheat straw.
Environmental Impact Briquetted paper has many notable benefits,
many of which minimize the impact of the paper waste generated by a shredding system.
Several manufactures claim up to 90% volume reduction of briquetted paper waste versus
traditional shredding.
Decreasing the volume of shredded waste allows it to be transported and stored more efficiently,
reducing the cost and fuel required in the disposal process.
In addition to the cost savings associated with reducing the volume of waste, paper briquettes
are more useful in paper mills to create recycled paper than uncompressed shredded material.
Compressed briquettes can also be used as a fuel for starting fires or as an insulating
material.
Gallery
See also Biomass briquettes
Biomass Cook Stoves Charcoal
Energy in Victoria Wood briquette
Notes ^ Joe O'Connell.
Kingsford Brand Charcoal Ingredients.
California Barbecue Association website.
Retrieved 11 May 2007.
^ All About Charcoal.
virtualweberbullet.com.
Retrieved May 11 2007.
^ NSA Standards for Disintegrators [1] ^ Physical properties of briquettes from waste
paper and wheat straw mixtures [2] External links
Coconut Shell Charcoal Briquettes How charcoal briquettes are made.
How easy briquetting biomass, like straw and hay.
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.