Effect of time from harvest to agglomeration process of herbaceous mass on the density and hardness of briquettes

Abstract

The study presents the results about the density and hardness of the briquettes produced from barley straw, wheat and rapeseed straw and hay. 6-month and 18-month raw materials after harvest from the fields were used to the agglomeration, stored in stacks in the field. The study showed that the briquettes produced from 6-month material characterized by a greater density in the comparison with the 18-month material. The difference was 130.28 kg·m−3 for the hay briquette, whereas the difference was 58.14 kg·m−3 in the case of rape straw briquettes. Similar results were found for the hardness. All samples of briquette used for testing had longitudinal cracks, however transversal cracks were observed only on the briquettes produced from barley straw and hay.

Keywords

• biomass briquette
• barley straw
• hay
• density