Combustion characteristic of briquette charcoal derived from carbonisation of food waste via microwave technique / Muhammad Izwadi Zailan

An increment of the volume of solid waste which mainly contributed by food waste had been managed by the landfilling, composting and incineration methods, is alarming. However, these methods caused various impact to the environment. Turning the food waste into a fuel source such as briquette charcoal was one of the alternatives in managing the food waste. Nevertheless, binders are needed to hold the charcoal together so as to be able to shape it into briquette. Various binders could be used in order to produce the briquette. This research project uses starch and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) as the binder. In addition, different ratio of the binder could also give impact to the quality of the briquette produced. Hence, this research project was mainly focusing on the investigation of the effect of different binder types on the quality of briquettes charcoal, and to investigate the effect of binder percentages on the combustion properties of briquettes charcoal produced. The food waste was collected from the cafes in UiTM Shah Alam. The method that was applied in carbonizing the food waste was microwave pyrolysis while the 20 tons compression machine was used to briquette the solid char into briquette charcoal. The calorific value, proximate analysis, ultimate analysis, hydrocarbon compound and thermal behaviour were analysed. Result showed that the briquette formed using the starch as the binder performed better in combustion quality than that of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC).