This paper describes an innovative technology that provides an alternative to management of wastes arising from grass cuttings, weeds and agro-forestry residues that are usually discarded unattended. These wastes are now converted into biochar pellets using a newly designed carboniser which is highly economical and can generate employment opportunities to peri-urban and rural low income populations. We used simple spent oil drum with an attached chimney and cassava based starch or clay (e.g. kaolin) as binder to make pellets from the burnt raw materials. This process does not require any moving parts, electricity or any additional fuel to convert the waste into charcoal pellets. We have field tested the carboniser with elephant grass (Pennistum purpureum) as feedstock. Technical performance was evaluated using parameters such as Production Capacity Ratio (PCR), Reliability Ratio (RR) and Efficiency Ratio (ER). Samples of elephant grass, biochar pellets and the ash produced after the biochar used for cooking were analysed for selected chemical characteristics (viz. sulphur, carbon, hydrogen, potassium and calorific value), using standard laboratory procedures. The results obtained gave production capacity and efficiency ratio of 83%; actual production capacity of 25 kg/hour; which is 100% reliable. The differences in the chemical parameters for the three samples were significant. Potassium, carbon and calorific values were observed in increasing order: ash < elephant grass < biochar. Biochar gave lowest values of hydrogen (12.36±0.01%) and sulphur (0.67±0.0%) contents while elephant grass contained highest values of these elements (13.28±.02% and 1.38±0.00%, respectively). This technology will benefit less educated rural and peri-urban populations to develop a small scale or medium scale entrepreneurship with low financial inputs and minimal skills and the product is a good cooking fuel and environment friendly with less or no smoke.
| Published in | International Journal of Sustainable and Green Energy (Volume 3, Issue 6) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.18 |
| Page(s) | 179-184 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Agro-Forestry Residues, Biochar Pellets, Carboniser, Elephant Grass
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APA Style
Taiwo Babatunde Hammed, Mynepalli Kameswara Chandra Sridhar. (2014). A Closed Drum Carboniser for Converting Ligno-Cellulosic Residues to Biochar Pellets: A Nigerian Study. International Journal of Sustainable and Green Energy, 3(6), 179-184. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.18
ACS Style
Taiwo Babatunde Hammed; Mynepalli Kameswara Chandra Sridhar. A Closed Drum Carboniser for Converting Ligno-Cellulosic Residues to Biochar Pellets: A Nigerian Study. Int. J. Sustain. Green Energy 2014, 3(6), 179-184. doi: 10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.18
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.18,
author = {Taiwo Babatunde Hammed and Mynepalli Kameswara Chandra Sridhar},
title = {A Closed Drum Carboniser for Converting Ligno-Cellulosic Residues to Biochar Pellets: A Nigerian Study},
journal = {International Journal of Sustainable and Green Energy},
volume = {3},
number = {6},
pages = {179-184},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.18},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.18},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijrse.20140306.18},
abstract = {This paper describes an innovative technology that provides an alternative to management of wastes arising from grass cuttings, weeds and agro-forestry residues that are usually discarded unattended. These wastes are now converted into biochar pellets using a newly designed carboniser which is highly economical and can generate employment opportunities to peri-urban and rural low income populations. We used simple spent oil drum with an attached chimney and cassava based starch or clay (e.g. kaolin) as binder to make pellets from the burnt raw materials. This process does not require any moving parts, electricity or any additional fuel to convert the waste into charcoal pellets. We have field tested the carboniser with elephant grass (Pennistum purpureum) as feedstock. Technical performance was evaluated using parameters such as Production Capacity Ratio (PCR), Reliability Ratio (RR) and Efficiency Ratio (ER). Samples of elephant grass, biochar pellets and the ash produced after the biochar used for cooking were analysed for selected chemical characteristics (viz. sulphur, carbon, hydrogen, potassium and calorific value), using standard laboratory procedures. The results obtained gave production capacity and efficiency ratio of 83%; actual production capacity of 25 kg/hour; which is 100% reliable. The differences in the chemical parameters for the three samples were significant. Potassium, carbon and calorific values were observed in increasing order: ash < elephant grass < biochar. Biochar gave lowest values of hydrogen (12.36±0.01%) and sulphur (0.67±0.0%) contents while elephant grass contained highest values of these elements (13.28±.02% and 1.38±0.00%, respectively). This technology will benefit less educated rural and peri-urban populations to develop a small scale or medium scale entrepreneurship with low financial inputs and minimal skills and the product is a good cooking fuel and environment friendly with less or no smoke.},
year = {2014}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - A Closed Drum Carboniser for Converting Ligno-Cellulosic Residues to Biochar Pellets: A Nigerian Study AU - Taiwo Babatunde Hammed AU - Mynepalli Kameswara Chandra Sridhar Y1 - 2014/12/27 PY - 2014 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.18 DO - 10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.18 T2 - International Journal of Sustainable and Green Energy JF - International Journal of Sustainable and Green Energy JO - International Journal of Sustainable and Green Energy SP - 179 EP - 184 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-1549 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.18 AB - This paper describes an innovative technology that provides an alternative to management of wastes arising from grass cuttings, weeds and agro-forestry residues that are usually discarded unattended. These wastes are now converted into biochar pellets using a newly designed carboniser which is highly economical and can generate employment opportunities to peri-urban and rural low income populations. We used simple spent oil drum with an attached chimney and cassava based starch or clay (e.g. kaolin) as binder to make pellets from the burnt raw materials. This process does not require any moving parts, electricity or any additional fuel to convert the waste into charcoal pellets. We have field tested the carboniser with elephant grass (Pennistum purpureum) as feedstock. Technical performance was evaluated using parameters such as Production Capacity Ratio (PCR), Reliability Ratio (RR) and Efficiency Ratio (ER). Samples of elephant grass, biochar pellets and the ash produced after the biochar used for cooking were analysed for selected chemical characteristics (viz. sulphur, carbon, hydrogen, potassium and calorific value), using standard laboratory procedures. The results obtained gave production capacity and efficiency ratio of 83%; actual production capacity of 25 kg/hour; which is 100% reliable. The differences in the chemical parameters for the three samples were significant. Potassium, carbon and calorific values were observed in increasing order: ash < elephant grass < biochar. Biochar gave lowest values of hydrogen (12.36±0.01%) and sulphur (0.67±0.0%) contents while elephant grass contained highest values of these elements (13.28±.02% and 1.38±0.00%, respectively). This technology will benefit less educated rural and peri-urban populations to develop a small scale or medium scale entrepreneurship with low financial inputs and minimal skills and the product is a good cooking fuel and environment friendly with less or no smoke. VL - 3 IS - 6 ER -
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