III.

INTRODUCTION

One very important issues that the Philippines is facing today including the
developing countries in the 21st century is the capability to have a dependable and
affordable renewable energy sources and sustainable development of the remaining
natural resources. Historically, the Philippines has been heavily dependent on
imported fossil fuel for its energy needs. In recent years, there is a global search
and development for alternative and renewable energy. The Philippines has an
abundant abandoned biomass resources from cellolusic residues of agricultural
production and processing, animal wastes, forest biomass residues, urban-industrial
wastes and aquatic biomass (i.e., water hyacinth, etc.). As early as 10 years ago,
agro-forestry wastes accounted for 3.5 and 5.6 percent, respectively of the national
energy mix (martinet, Eric .Renewable 2005 global status report. (2005). Diane
Publishing Co. page 56) and this contribution is expected to increase especially due
to continued increase in fuel prices. Recently, the Philippines started to take
measures to develop biofuels and other renewable energy sources.

Biomass has been defined as organic products from agriculture and forestry
systems developed to provide food, fuel, and organic matter from captured sewage
and waste treatment facilities. The Philippines, being an agricultural country
growing crops sugarcane generates a huge amount of by-products and residues
that may be used to generate energy and development of other products. This is
still a huge untapped resource.

The Philippines is largely an agricultural country with the agricultural sector

contributing about one-third of GNP. The total area is about 30 million hectares and
about half is approximately A & D lands which is devoted to agricultural production
and urban development. The remaining areas are forests, shrublands and wetlands.
Rice, corn, sugarcane and coconut are the most abundant crops planted with a total
area of about 9 million hectares. The major abandoned biomass/wastes resources
presented are: rice hull/husk, rice straw, sugarcane bagasse, coconut wastes,
forestry residues and urban waste. But this paper will only focus on rice straw.
 The Filipinos are among the worlds biggest rice consumers. The average
Filipino consumes about 100 kilograms per year of rice. Metro Manila consumes up
to 22,000 tons per day of rice or 16% of the countrys rice consumption according
to the Asia Rice Foundation (ARF). Rice consumption is increasing at an average of
two percent per year. With the population of the Philippines already surpassing the
80 million-mark, rice will continue to be grown and should match production with
corresponding increase in population. Rice production increased from 5.32 million
tons in 1970 to 12.39 million tons in 2000. Rice straw on the other hand are field
wastes after the harvesting of rice(PCARRD. 2004. R and D Status and Directions.
Commodity Industry Situation: Rice. PCARRD, Los Banos, Philippines). In the 2008,
about 620 million tons of rice straw (referred as residues) were produced in Asia
alone and this is increasing every year. In most places, these residues have no
commercial value and are disposed off in various ways.

Due to abundance of abandoned biomass in the country, there is need to

introduce dependable and affordable renewable energy sources such as charcoal
briquettes produced from sugarcane bagasse. The briquettes are mostly composed
of organic waste and other materials that are biodegradable, and are commonly
used as heat and cooking fuel. The composition of the briquettes may vary due to
the availability of the raw materials in an area. These materials are compressed
sometimes with the use of a binder and/or inorganic additives called fillers and
made into briquettes (Emrich, 1984).

The briquettes are different from charcoal because they do not possess large
concentrations of carbonaceous substances. They both posses the same physical
properties such as heating value, ash and moisture content.

Briquettes are compressed at different pressures. Many materials commonly

used to create charcoal briquettes contain naturally occurring binders such as resin,
wax or wood lignin. It is the lignin constituent of the biomass material, a major
component of most plant matter which acts as a binder and holds the briquette
together. However, adequate pressure is required to break cell walls and allow
amalgamation. This occurs at moderate pressures greater than around 5.0 MPa but
this depends on the specific properties of the material.

In some processes, heat can be applied before or during compaction to

activate the materials built-in binder and reduce the pressure required.
Manufacture of briquettes by compaction at high pressures, requiring a hydraulic
press for example, while applying heat is, however, an energy intensive process,
and often unpractical.

In order to overcome the need for the high pressure compression to form
briquettes, natural decomposition processes can be used to break fibers down and
this is found to facilitate bonding. This can be done by first chopping the residues,
before leaving them to be further broken down by fermentation until the fibers
separate (to achieve this, the agro-residues are moistened, covered and left in a
warm place to decompose). In the fermentation process the structure of the
lignocellulosic material breaks down and this facilitates the interlocking of fibers
during the densification process.

The material is removed when it begins to take on a sludgy texture and can
then be pulped like papiermache. The resulting mixture can then be pounded in a
mortar and pestle until it takes on a mushy consistency and stable balls can be
formed by hand. The result is a mass of pulp that can be compressed in a mold to
form briquettes under low pressures without the addition of a binder being
necessary. This technique, although potentially labor intensive, requires little
expenses. One disadvantage is that it produces wet briquettes that need to be dried
for a considerable time in the sun before being burnt. This is compared to
briquettes formed from residues with low-moisture content, using a high-pressure
process, which after the densification process can be burnt immediately. However,
some materials are difficult to breakdown down by fermentation or take a long
time. These materials need to be agglomerated with the addition of a binder.[2]
There are many kinds of binders that can be used such as clay, starch, molasses.

Clay has the advantage that in many areas it is widely available at practically
no cost. All clay added to the briquette will turn into ash. On the other hand
briquettes with high ash content are reported to burn and glow long, which can be
advantageous for specific applications like coffee making.

The most common binder is starch. Starch sources are commercial starch,
rice powder, boiled rice water (rice starch), cassava starch and other materials.
Starch is preferred as a binder though it is relatively expensive. Because starch is a
main food product as well, it is widely available and often promoted as a binder in
low-tech carbonization and briquetting projects.

Molasses is a by-product from the sugar cane industry. For each ton of briquettes
about 20-25% molasses is needed. Briquettes made by molasses burn well,
however the briquettes have an unpleasant smell during the initial phases of
burning. To avoid this smell, the briquettes can be thermally treated before use,
also called curing, which is in fact a light Torre faction step. Molasses can be used
as fodder and for ethanol production as well and needs to be purchased. In some
countries with low alcohol consumption, molasses was a waste product that was
being dumped. At least it was possible to buy the molasses at a relatively low price.
Given the increased demand for molasses for fuel ethanol production, it is expected
that the molasses prices will rise

IV. OBJECTIVES

This study aims to justify that binders(molasses, clay, starch) used could
affect the physical properties of a charcoal briquette from rice straws.

Specifically, it aims to:

1. To determine the different heating value of charcoal briquettes with

different concentrations of binders.

2. To compare the different ash and moisture content of charcoal

briquettes

3. To enhance resource recovery from agricultural wastes

V. SIGNIFICANCEOF THE STUDY

 This study considers the use of biomass residues, a potential energy
feedstock that is not currently being capitalized in Philippines which are the
agricultural wastes (rice straw). The main significant of this study is to conduct a
study about the effect of heating value on briquettes with different binders because
hypothetically, efficient production of briquettes with high heating value needs an
aid of binder.

The importance of this study is to utilize agricultural wastes that are just
decaying to reduce excessive biodegradable waste while creating an alternative
source of fuel for cooking. Minimizing also the cutting of trees and preventing wide
range of deforestation for the production of charcoal rather, agricultural waste such
as rice straw is used.

REFERENCES:

[1.] Baconguis, Satiago R. (2007). Abandoned Biomass resources in the

Philippines. 10th National Convention on Statistics (NCS) EDSA Shangri-La
Hotel.
[2.] Chaney, Joel. French MSci Physics. Combustion Characteristics of
Biomass Briquettes. (May 2010). The University of Nottingham, England. 38-
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