Biomass and Bioenergy 22 (2002) 505 509

Briquetting of palm bre and shell from the processing

of palm nuts to palm oil
Z. Husain , Z. Zainac, Z. Abdullah
School of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
Received 6 August 2001; received in revised form 10 January 2002; accepted 10 January 2002

Abstract
Malaysia is the major producer of palm oil in the world. It produces 8.5 million tonnes per year (8:5 106 t y1 ) of palm
oil from 38:6 106 t y1 of fresh fruit bunches. Palm oil production generates large amounts of process residues such as bre
(5:4 106 t y1 ), shell (2:3 106 t y1 ), and empty fruit bunches (8:8 106 t y1 ). A large fraction of the bre and much of
the shell are used as fuel to generate process steam and electricity in the palm processing mill itself. However, much is wasted
by pile burning in the open air with attendant air pollution, dumped in areas adjacent to the mill, or utilized as manure in
the palm oil plantation. In this paper, an attempt has been made to convert these residues into solid fuel. The palm shell and
bre is densied into briquettes of diameter 40, 50 and 60 mm under moderate pressure of 5 13:5 MPa in a hydraulic press.
Experiments are carried out to determine density, durability, impact and compressive strength of the briquettes. The heating
value, burning characteristics, ash and moisture content are other objects of the study. A relationship between press pressure
and the briquette density has been established. The produced briquettes have densities between 1100 and 1200 kg m3 . The
briquettes properties are quite good with good resistance to mechanical disintegration, and will withstand wetting. The gross
caloric value is about 16:4 MJ kg1 (maf), and the ash content is about 6% and the equilibrium moisture content is about
12%. Further work is required to acquire complete understanding of the densication process before good quality and durable
briquettes could be made free from cracks. ? 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Briquettes; Palm oil residues; Palm shell; Palm bre; Densication; Mechanical properties

1. Introduction
Malaysia grows signicant quantities of rice, sugar
cane, palm, coconut and rubber. Palm oil mills produce
crude palm oil and palm kernels as their main products. It also produces signicant quantities of residues
such as bre (from the masocap), shell (from around
the kernel) and empty fruit bunches (EFB). Fibre

Corresponding author. Tel.: +60-04-593-7788; fax: +60-04594-1025.

and shell are the main thermal energy sources from the
palm oil mills. In 1992 bre and shell generated about
650 GW h to meet the electrical energy demand of
265 palm oil mills through combined heat and power
production. This amounted to 23% of the electrical
production of the country. The biowaste readily available from the palm oil industry is renewable energy
resource. In general, the fresh fruit bunch contains
(by weight) about 21% palm oil, 6 7% palm kernel,
14 15% bre, 6 7% shell and 23% FFB. One
method of upgrading loose residue material to improve
their handling and or combustion properties is by

0961-9534/02/$ - see front matter ? 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 6 1 - 9 5 3 4 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 2 2 - 3

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Z. Husain et al. / Biomass and Bioenergy 22 (2002) 505 509

densication into pellets or briquettes of higher density than original bulk density of the material. It has
been noted that, there is marked improvement in combustion characteristics of densied biomass residue
(DBR) compared to loose biowaste. DBRs have been
reported to have superior and comparable combustion
characteristics to wood-based fuels [1,2]. The properties of importance for any biofuels are its physical and
chemical properties which include density, moisture
content, heating value, ash content, etc. Also important are its mechanical properties such as impact, compressive strength, as well as handling and storage [3].
2. Methodology
2.1. Raw material procurement
The bre and shell residues are collected from a
nearby palm oil mill in the ratio of 60:40 which is
the usual practice in mills to re the boilers fresh,
and theiras received state. The proximate analysis
of solid oil palm residues are as follows:

Volatile matter (wt%)

Fixed carbon (wt%)
Ash (wt%)

Fibre

Shell

EFB

72.8
18.8
8.4

76.3
20.5
3.2

75.7
17
7.3

The ultimate analysis of solid residues are as

follows:
Component (wt%)

Fibre

Shell

EFB

Hydrogen
Carbon
Sulphur
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Ash

6
47.2
0.3
1.4
36.7
8.4

6.3
52.4
0.2
0.6
37.3
3.2

6.3
48.8
0.2
0.7
36.7
2.3

The residues are dried and ground to powder in a

milling machine to approximately 60 75 m. The bre and shell as raw materials in powder form are then
mixed with water and starch as binders to make briquettes. The mixing is done in a mixer until it reached
required condition to make moulds. Starch is 10% of
the weight of the residue (bre and shell) and hot

Fig. 1. Three diKerent sizes of the briquettes.

water around 50% of the residue. The samples tested

under three diKerent conditions at room temperature

for 6 hours, dried in oven at 60 C for 6 hours, and

at ambient condition under the sun for 8 hours before
putting in press. The relative humidity is 85% at room

temperature of 32 C.
2.2. Briquetting process
The moulds are made in diKerent ratios on weight
basis to obtain an optimum mix. Die moulds then subjected to high pressure in a press. The cylindrical briquettes were made of diameters 40, 50 and 60 mm
as shown in Fig. 1. The pressure applied is from 5
13:5 MPa against a back-up piston. The diameter to
length ratio of briquettes was kept constant at 0.75.
The optimum die charges were generally proportional
to the cross-sectional area and ranged from 113 g for
40 mm die to 380 g for 60 mm.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Pressuredensity relationships
The relationship between pressure and density has
been studied by many research workers. Wheeler [4]
proposed a relationship between pressure and density
for straw in the form of a simple power-law at high
densities. Ooi Chin [5] have worked on pellets and
found a diKerent exponential relationship between die
pressure and density of the form
D = anP + b;

(1)

Z. Husain et al. / Biomass and Bioenergy 22 (2002) 505 509

507

14
13

Pressure (MPa)

12
11
10
9

40mm mold diameter

50mm diameter
60mm diameter

Linear (40mm mold diameter)

Linear (60mm diameter)

Linear (50mm diameter)

4
1100

1120

1140

1160

1180

1200

1220

1240

1260

1280

1300

Density ( kg/m3)

Fig. 2. Pressure versus relaxed density for three diKerent sizes of the briquettes.

where a; b are empirical constants which vary for different types of feed stocks viz saw dust, rice, husk,
coconut bre, etc. Osobor [6] and Faborode [7] have
also proposed relationships between pressure and density. In the present analysis, after the briquette is removed from the die after 1 week drying at room temperature, the measured length was used to calculate
the relaxed density of the briquette. Fig. 2 shows the
graph between relax density and die pressure for the
three sizes of the mould diameter. There is an exponential increase in pressure with increase in relax density. The relationship is in the form
P = aebD ;

(2)

where P is measured in MPa, D is the relax density

expressed in kg m3 and a; b are empirical constants.
The value of these constants for densied biomass
residue (DBR) are as follows:
40 mm diameter;

a = 0:0389;

b = 0:0045;

50 mm diameter;

a = 0:0871;

b = 0:0036;

60 mm diameter;

a = 0:189;

chines. Wheeler [4] has obtained for barly straw values

in the range of 5 25 MJ t 1 . Taha [8] quotes a value
of specic energy 7:2 MJ t1 for compression of cotton stalks in circular dies. In our study DBR in circular dies gives value of specic energy in the range of
5 10 MJ t1 depending on biomass residue density.
3.3. Heating value of DBR
The heating value of DPR was measured by Bomb
Calorimeter. The higher caloric value of DBR obtained by experiment is 16:38 MJ kg1 (maf).
3.4. Compressive strength
The briquettes were subjected to vertical force in a
compressive testing machine as shown in Fig. 3. The
failure load is read directly on the dial in kilonewtons. The average compressive strength for DPR is
2:56 kN m2 .

b = 0:0033:

The density ratio (relaxed density=initial density) for

DBR is 0.65.
3.2. Speci1c energy
The specic energy required to form briquettes is
of critical importance for the design of practical ma-

3.5. Moisture content

The strength and durability of briquette is aKected
by moisture content, density and humidity. The relaxed density is measured at atmospheric conditions
with relative humidity 85% and the moisture content
measured as 12.5%.

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Z. Husain et al. / Biomass and Bioenergy 22 (2002) 505 509

Fig. 3. Briquette failure under compressive force.

Table 1
Burning rate, airfuel ratio and ash content of DBR and coal

Specimen

Mass
(g)

Burning
time (min)

Consumption
(kg s1 )

Mass Mow rate

of air (kg s1 )

Burning rate
in (W)

A=F ratio

% ash

DPR
Coal

91.7
136

50
109

3:05 105
2:08 105

3:1 104
3:1 104

500
683

10.2
14.9

5.8
6.8

3.6. Combustion characteristics

3.7. Crack analysis

The combustion process of DBR was studied using

a locally made stove. Air for combustion is supplied
under pressure from air compressor through three perforated pipes with four holes in each pipe. The DPR
briquettes were placed over the hearth of the stove. The
arrangement is typical of a coal-red boiler. The mass

Mow rate of air is calculated as: ma = velocity of air

cross-sectional area of holes no: of holes.
The velocity of air is measured by an anemometer. The Mow rate of air is controlled by a valve. With
known quantity of DBR and time for complete com
bustion of the biomass, its consumption (mb ) and burning rate are calculated. From the experimental results
the burning rate is 500 W, airfuel ratio is 10.2 and
ash content is 5.8% (Table 1).

The crack analysis is made after keeping the briquettes for 4 days at atmosphere conditions. The
cracks fall into two categories: surface (S) and deep
(D) cracks. The crack length is measured in the axial
direction (x) and the depth of the crack in the radial
direction (r). Table 2 shows the crack analysis for
diKerent specimen diameters.
The crack length in the axial direction increases
with diameter of briquettes. The briquettes withstood
the impact when allowed to fall freely from a height
of 12 m. Also the briquettes when immersed in
water for a period of 30 360 s do not show signs
of disintegration which indicate that they do not require shielding from driving rain during transport and
storage.

Z. Husain et al. / Biomass and Bioenergy 22 (2002) 505 509

509

Table 2
Crack analysis for densied biomass residue (DBR)

d = 40 mm

d = 50 mm

d = 60 mm

Specimen

x (mm)

r (mm)

Category

x (mm)

r (mm)

Category

x (mm)

r (mm)

Category

51.2

77.7

54.7

56.9

59.6

S
S
S
S
D
S
D
S
S

28.6

9.8
28.7
6.7
43.2
9.9
27.2
11.2
11.8
9.8

76.9

52.3

D
S
S
S
D
S
D
S
D
S

63.2

10.8
22.3
7.1
28.5
6.9
17.2
11.2
39.6
7.2
32.7

13.9
57.6
11.2
34.6
11.4
46.7
11.4
46.7

D
S
D
S
S
S
S
S

64.2
65.2
65.5
67

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