| dc.description.abstract | The study was aimed at evaluating the potential of producing fuel briquettes from banana pseudo stems as an alternative cooking fuel in Uganda. The primary objective of this work was to produce fuel briquettes from banana stems. This objective was achieved by collecting the material, chopping the stems, drying, milling, carbonization, addition of cassava starch as a binder, extrusion and drying. An electrically powered furnace was employed for carbonization since it was viable in research but inapplicable on industrial scale due to its cost ineffectiveness. The banana stems used were obtained from Kulambiro, Kampala district.
The heating values of the raw banana stems and charcoals at pyrolysis temperatures of 200, 300 and 400°C as obtained from bomb calorimetric experiments were; 14.42, 15.20, 15.92 and 10.10MJ/kg respectively. The results obtained were within the ranges as compared with literature values from the works done by other researchers. And this study revealed that the best pyrolysis temperatures were between 300 and 400°C for a residence time of two hours. This study also indicated that slow pyrolysis gives high carbon charcoal thus a higher heating value cooking fuel. Therefore, there is a possibility to use banana stems for the production of fuel briquettes. Banana stems which are considered as waste material are a better alternative rather than using charcoal from trees which has led to environmental problems through deforestation. | en_US |
