Biobriquettes: As a Sustainable Composite Fuel for Rural Areas in Developing Countries

The province of Cordoba, Colombia, has a 250.000 tons production of corn, which generate about 45.000 tons of cobs per year, which do not represent any value for farmers. The disposal of this agricultural waste has become a source of contamination because is burned in open areas. On the other hand, this province has a considerable production of raw coal; nevertheless, it is characterized by its high sulfur content (1.65%) and low heat value (5111 cal/gr), as a consequence, it has a limited market, but is still used as a fuel. This study proposes the use of biobriquettes that are a composite fuel prepared from a mixture of biomass (corn cob) and coal in a low die press briquetting machine. They consist of different proportions of milled cob (up to 80%) and coal (up to 40%) mixed with a cassava starch based binder. For the mixtures proximal analysis, including sulfur content and heat values of the material was determined according to their composition. The experimental results showed that the biobriquettes compared with the raw coal have between a 92 to 32% lower sulfur content, while the heat value was reduced by 14 to 29%. Therefore, its use will reduce the amount of burned residue in open spaces and consequently the pollution.