Preparation and characterization of solid biomass fuel made from rice straw and rice bran

This study investigated the preparation and characterization of the solid fuel briquette, which was made from rice straw and rice bran. This work included: (1) developing a machine to smash the rice straw into pieces: (2) compressing the smashed rice straws and the rice bran into the biomass briquette; and (3) characterizing the properties of the briquette (such as the percentage of change in briquette volume, the percentage of loss of briquette mass, the air-dry density, the compressive strength, and the heating value) at room temperature. The hot-pressing temperature strongly affects the compressive strength of the briquette. As the percentage of the rice bran increases, the compressive strength and the heating value of the biomass briquette increase. Most interestingly, the thermo-energy, which is used to compress the briquette of the rice straw, will be minimized if a certain percentage of the binder (such as rice bran, sawdust, or the other biomass waste) is mixed with the smashed rice straw. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.