Briquette For Textile Industry

As the demand to become an environmentally friendly industry enters this era of decarbonization, a number of industries have begun to switch to using renewable energy in their production processes, and the textile industry is no exception. You can read about the urgency of a biomass boiler here. A number of boilers are used in the textile industry with the type of boiler that uses a static (static grate) and dynamic (moving grate) furnace. From the operational point of view, a dynamic furnace (moving grate) is easier and more efficient because the combustion process can be more complete. In addition to general fuel specifications such as calorific value, moisture content, ash content and so on, the size and shape of the fuel is also an important factor in the efficiency of the combustion. Wood pellets with a diameter of generally 6 mm and 8 mm and palm kernel shells with a size of about 1 cm to 5 cm are sometimes not suitable for this type of boiler. For these conditions briquette can be the solution. Briquette sizes are not only bigger but also more diverse, including the briquetting technology used, for more details on briquetting technology, you can read here.

Biomass waste, both wood processing industry and agricultural waste such as rice husks, can be used as raw material for these briquettes. Briquette shapes such as pucks or cylinders or short octagonals can be a solution for certain types of boilers. Currently, there is still a lot of wood waste that has not been utilized and even polluted waters such as rivers that can be used for the production of these briquettes, more details can be read here. Meanwhile, rice as a staple food source for the Indonesian population also produces a lot of waste in the form of rice husks. Indonesia's rice production in 2008 is estimated to reach 59.9 million tons of milled dry grain with a husk composition of 25%, meaning that the husk potential reaches 15 million tons/year. Although the amount is abundant but generally its utilization is still not optimal, this is because rice husk has a low bulk density and relatively small calorific value due to the high ash content. Indeed, with biomass compaction technology such as briquetting, the biomass waste becomes easy to use, economical for long-distance transportation and overcomes environmental pollution problems.

Whereas in Indonesia, almost all of the briquettes produced are screw extrude types which are actually not very suitable for the boiler solution. This is because this type of briquette is not only long in shape and also requires a large amount of energy or electrical power for the production process. Cutting it into small pieces will be an additional job in itself. While the mechanical press type to get small pieces to form pucks is easy to do and also requires less electrical power. As a comparison, screw extrude briquettes to produce 1 tonne of briquettes require about 100 kW of electricity, while on a mechanical press to produce 1 ton of briquettes, electricity is needed only 50 kW or half. In addition, when using abrasive raw materials such as rice husk which has a high silica content for a screw extrude type briquette machine, it will only have a short life, while the mechanical press has a much longer service life.