Sustainable Coal Production from Cotton Shell Utilizing Carbonization Process for Fuel Briquette

Abstract

The nonrenewable energies and some renewable energies is not accessible to less developing countries such as Cameroon. The population use to use wood for their energies needs which lead to fast deforestation. The goal of this study was the valorization of cotton shell in the production of bio-coal fuel briquette. To achieve this objective, bio-coal was produced using the carbonization process following the Box Benken matrix. The bio-coal was characterized and fuel briquettes were formulated by adding Arabic gum as binder.  The results showed that, the optimum conditions to produce bio-coal with higher fixed carbon were temperature at 500°C for a residence time of 30min and cotton shell mass of 26.5g. FTIR spectra of cotton shell coal pointed −C═O groups of aliphatic carboxylic acids, carbonyl groups from the hydroxyl unsaturated aldehydes/ketones and aromatic rings. The thermogram of bio-coal revealed water evaporation, the degradation of volatile matter and the transformation of fixed carbon to ash.  The optimum conditions to formulate the bio-coal fuel briquettes with an efficient degradation rate of briquette and the easy handle were 85.8% coal and 14.2% arabic gum.