A Study of Cotton Dust Mixed with Wood Dust for Bio-Briquette Fuel

Various textile-industrial wastes such as cotton wastes, polyester fibres, lumps and old rags can be a source of energy. Cotton dust seems to be one of the most interesting bio-waste energy sources because its shares of the high heat energy and organic material. This paper presents physical and mechanical properties of briquette mixed with cotton dust (CD) and wood dust (WD). The various ratios of CD:WD (0:100, 20:80, 40:60, 60:40, 80:20 and 100:0 % by weight) were investigated. The dimensional of hexagon briquette specimen was 5 cm (outer diameter) and 2.5 cm (hollow inner diameter) with the height of 10 cm was subjected to physical and mechanical tests. Results of physical performance test showed that the briquette specimens with ratio of CD:WD (1:0) gave the lowest ignition temperature, smoke temperature and duration of flame out time of 280°C, 275°C and 6.30 min/2gm respectively. While, the briquette specimens made with ratio of 0.2:0.8 gave the highest heat energy of 3,960 cal/g. However, the result of mechanical properties showed that and briquette specimens made with the ratio of 0.2:0.8 was the highest compressive strength of 9.80 N/mm2. This study indicated that CD can be used as a substitute material for bio-briquette fuels.