The effects of alkaline pre-treatment on the combustion profiles of fuel briquettes produced from mango seed shells compared to untreated ones

Abstract

The need for an alternative energy source to complement the use of fossil fuels and mitigate the environmental and economic challenges arising from the overexploitation of nonrenewable energy sources has led to the use of biomass briquettes as a suitable alternative. This study investigates the performance of alkaline-pretreated biomass briquettes produced from mango seed shells. The pulverized sample was divided into two equal samples. A portion of the sample was soaked in 0.3 M sodium hydroxide for 3 hours, then washed and dried. The second portion remained untreated. Eighty grams of both the treated and untreated samples were thoroughly blended with 20g of starch slurry and fed into the briquetting machine, where they were compressed to produce briquettes. The produced briquettes were sun-dried for 4 weeks and then analyzed. The proximate composition, physical properties, combustibility properties, and SEM of the briquettes were determined. The alkaline-treated sample (BTS) had a value of 1498.67 ± 1.04 kJ/kg, and the untreated sample (UTS) had a value of 1495.44 ± 1.72 kJ/kg. The compressive strength of alkaline pretreated (BTS) was 0.783± 0.250. It took 20 minutes for the treated sample to boil one litre of water, while it took 22 minutes for the untreated sample to boil the same volume. The results showed that both treated and untreated samples could be used for briquette production; however, the treated briquette sample had better performance and hence was a better fuel.