Design and development of a manually operated bio-char block making machine
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Date
2019-07
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
The world is presently facing the vague catastrophe of the energy crisis and environmental deprivation. India is the fourth leading consumer in the world of crude oil and natural gas. Presently, conventional energy sources i.e. coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear and hydropower account for 85% to 90% of primary energy consumption in India. Renewable energy sources provide approximately 10% of the total energy demand in India. Biomass is considered as renewable, sustainable and carbon natural fuel source which is available in huge amount in India about 500 MMT/yr. In Indian Himalayas region, the availability of pine needle (Pinus roxburghii) is about 15.9 MMT/yr, whereas in Uttarakhand is about 2.06 MMT/yr. The present work was carried out for the design and development of a manually operated biochar block making machine. The machine was ergonomically designed with M.S. frame of height 90 cm, 150 cm long compaction lever (G.I. pipe), compressing unit, base plate and moulds of diameter 12.7 cm, height 17 cm. The biochar blocks were prepared with different types of binders such as soil, cattle dung,
cement and lime as 30%, 40% and 50% proportion by weight. By block making, bulk density of loose biomass increased from 40-200 kg/m3 to 600-1200 kg/m3 with an increase in calorific value and reduces transportation cost and storage space requirement as compared to raw biomass (pine needle). The prepared blocks were having a diameter of 12.7 cm, height of 8 cm and weight of 600 g. The average moisture content, volatile matter, ash content and fixed carbon was 5%, 36%, 25% and 40% respectively. The results indicated the maximum
shattering resistance and water absorption resistance as 83% and 76% for B50C50 and B50L50 respectively, whereas the maximum calorific value was 29 MJ/kg for B70S30. The biochar blocks with 40% binder ratio were found optimal as per optimization of treatments using RSM. The machine capacity was 48 blocks/h (24 kg/h) and the cost of production of biochar blocks for soil and dung was ₹6.30/kg whereas ₹10.30/kg for cement or lime. The break-even point of the biochar blocks making machine was 507 units of blocks.
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