You can use wood charcoal, charcoal fines, mineral carbon, coal, and biomass as heat fuel material. Unlike lump charcoal, briquettes will need accelerants to burn faster, because there is a difference in the structure of briquettes compared with that of lump charcoal due to compaction. As a result, briquettes are not able to absorb sufficient oxygen for faster combustion. Nitrates are oxidants, and when heated, they give out oxygen for accelerated combustion of briquettes.
The materials used are chemical nitrates, especially sodium nitrate. Avoid potassium nitrate and ammonium nitrate, as they are dangerous. In fact, you should not use nitrates unless you are a professional.
To start with, nitrates are used in making fertilizers and can be expensive in many countries. If you are targeting high-end markets like the US, go ahead and use sodium nitrate as an accelerant in your briquettes, since that market is willing to pay more for quality. If you are targeting low-end markets in developing countries, forget about sodium nitrate. Instead, use sawdust as an accelerant. To reduce the smoke from sawdust, partly ferment your sawdust by just letting it stay in water for five days.
Alternatively, you will need to carbonize your briquettes after you have made them. When you light your briquettes in a stove, you need to know when they are ready. This is done by observing that the burning briquettes have turned white.
You can only see the white ashes, however, if your briquettes contain sufficient calcium carbonate, lime, or limestone. Whiting, lime, limestone, or calcium carbonate have in the past been very cheap products. But with the rising fuel prices, the costs of transporting the products have become high.
It is because of this that in developing countries they may have to make do with charcoal briquettes of whatever ash color is available. Whiting, lime, limestone, or calcium carbonate are not heat fuels, but they can lower the burning rate such that the briquettes burn for a longer period but at a reduced fire.
Charcoal is a material without plasticity, and charcoal dust cannot hold shape without adding a binding material. The best binder has proven to be starch. Starch can be expensive though: it can cost a dollar per kilogram. Any starch will do, but cassava is preferred because cassava tuber and chips are very cheap and easily available to low-income societies.
The tubers are particularly good due to their high starch content. Corn starch maize starch , wheat starch, maize flour, wheat flour, and potato starch can also be used. These are foods though, and it can be difficult to make sense to a poor man that what he may consider valuable sustenance should be used by him to make charcoal briquettes. In any case, the world does not want us to "destroy" our foods to make charcoal briquettes. On the other hand, however, a packet of maize flour is of little value if you do not have fire to prepare the meal.
To use the starch as a binder, you need to gelatinize it. Starch gelatinization is just breaking down the intermolecular bonds of starch molecules in hot water to form a thick paste that will stick the charcoal dust together. In simpler language, just use your starch or flour to make porridge, and then use the sticky porridge to stick the charcoal dust or fines together. A binder has to be used, and there is no shortcut—unless you wish to use lignin from biomass material by pressing your briquette material using a high-pressure briquette-pressing machine.
Another good binder is gum arabic or acacia gum, which is harvested from the acacia tree. Acacia trees are very common in semi-arid areas, especially in the Sahel region of Africa and in particular Senegal, Sudan, Somalia, etc.
Other binders such as molasses, cement, clay, and tar can be used, but the resulting briquettes are not the best. Borax or sodium borate is the chemical to use so that when your charcoal paste is pressed to form a block of briquette, the briquette releases itself from the press.
This is only necessary if you are using a high-speed and high-pressure briquette-making machine. Sodium borate is a chemical that is used in making detergents, cosmetics, buffer solutions, fire retardants, anti-fungal compounds, insecticide, as a flux in metallurgy, as texturing agent in cooking, and in enamel glazes. Since borax is used as a texturing agent in cooking, it is assumed to be safe for your briquettes.
Fillers are substances added to briquettes that add no energy value. It is a form of adulteration and only adds ash content. If you feel that lump charcoal is a big challenge in terms of price to your charcoal briquettes, just add some filler to your charcoal briquettes and then lower your prices.
Unfortunately, there are very few materials that are cheaper than charcoal or charcoal fines. Cement can be used as filler but it is now more expensive than charcoal. Clay is cheap, but if there is a huge transport cost involved in getting it to the site where you are manufacturing your briquettes, then you can rule it out. It is said that fillers can prolong the burning period of briquettes, but briquettes with too much filler will be of poor quality.
The best recipe for making charcoal briquettes is the one that works best for you. The ash content is the percentage of the ratio of weight of ashes after the briquette has burnt completely to the weight of the briquette before it was burnt. Ash content is the percentage of the ratio of weight of ashes after the briquette has burnt completely to the weight of the briquette before it was burnt.
Many people believe charcoal briquettes have more ashes than lump charcoal. This is mostly due to the fact that the weight of charcoal briquettes your stove can hold can be as much as three times the weight of lump charcoal the same stove can hold. In the examples above, a 2-liter can of lump charcoal produces 15 grams of ashes, and the same can of charcoal briquettes produces This is because charcoal briquettes are more compact and have a higher density.
The average density of lump charcoal is about 0. Also, many people believe that charcoal briquettes burn slowly and are less hot than lump charcoal. This is due to the fact that lump charcoal has a bigger surface area than briquettes and therefore has a bigger ability to provide more oxygen for faster combustion. Making briquettes is labor intensive. Due to this, most briquettes are made of blocks with bigger sizes than lump charcoal. If you find your briquettes are not burning as fast as you would want them, try breaking them into smaller sizes.
Fortunately, there are briquette-making machines that can make briquettes of any size. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters. At the moment am making my briquettes but the challenge I have is my briquettes burns slowly and produces less heat. Please I would like to add sodium nitrates to my mixtures but I don't know how to mix it with these.
Please help me teach me how to mix these in their right proportions. We also have a lot of waste coming from corn farming. Please advice on this mix or suggest anothe waste to add as it has to be very low cost but high cash generating from recycling the waste. This Article is very resourceful, I was able to extract details of guiding information for producing optimal briquettes.
Thank you so much for important information on charcoal briquettes production. I would like to request your advice on how to reduce the breaking of briquettes. How can I acquire highly compact solid charcoal briquettes that cannot break easily while being transported to far destinations? How can I make charcoal from saw dust or chips?
Can I fry them until they turn black then I can mix them with cassava starch for briquettes? I have read the literature on charcoal from sawdust.
Sawdust is locally available in my community and looking for joint venture to turn into business. Just wanna establish a charcoal briquette production plant and training center. Please advise me on the project start up cost, including materials, grants or funding.
I have gone through your informative write-up and very much impressed. Is it possible to get the fillers from sorghum or make briquettes from sorghum head. Thanks you valid advice can please advice me on the ratio l should use when using soil , charcaol dust and sawdust.
I went through your write-up and they are guite instructive. The challenge here is how can i get a machine that is price is not high and that will still give me a high guality of product. Hi is there a step by step procedure in making the briquette while using the information given here? Need to know if plastic materials can be used in making briquette cahrcoals And also im making coconut charcoal now can you help me with how much coconut charcoal and hard wood must be mixed?
Am happy to have come across your website full of information. Start by soaking shredded paper in water for a few days to soften it. After a couple of days, use your hands to knead the pulp until it gets a porridge-like consistency.
You can use sawdust, pine needles, rice husks, leaves, or grass. Mix it in with your hands and add a little water at a time until the mixture becomes easily moldable. To form the briquettes, first, cut the top quarter off a 2-liter soda bottle. Punch drainage holes in the bottom, then insert a plastic bag to act as a liner. Take the briquette out and let it dry for days before burning it. To learn about other materials you can use to make briquettes, read on!
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Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article parts. Tips and Warnings. Things You'll Need. Related Articles. Article Summary. Part 1. Put on old clothes and wear gloves. Making briquettes is an incredibly messy process. Before you begin, you should wear gloves to protect your hands and also put on old clothing.
Shred scrap papers into small pieces. Find scrap paper around your home. Old mail, flyers, and work papers work well. Shred them into tiny pieces. Soak your paper for a few days. Place the papers in a bowl or bucket and cover them with water. Let the papers soak for two days. This allows the papers to soften and also releases fibers from the papers, which act as a binding agent for your briquettes.
This way, you're reusing old waste during the process. Work the paper into a porridge-like paste. After two days have passed, use your hands to knead and squeeze the paper. Keep going until you have a porridge-like mixture. The precise amount of time this will take depends on how much paper you're using. Add in your organic material. Organic material must be mixed into the paper to make briquettes. You can use saw dust, pine needles, rice husks, or chopped leaves and grass.
Mix one part soaked paper with three parts of your organic material. If you're using larger leaves, however, it can't hurt to break them up a bit. Add water. Start with a small amount of water and mix it into the paper mixture using your hands.
Keep adding water until the paper mixture becomes easily moldable. When squeezed, your mixture should hold together easily. Part 2. Cut off the upper quarter of a soda bottle. Use a 2-liter soda bottle to make your briquette mold. Use an x-acto knife, or any sharp knife from your kitchen, to cut off the upper quarter of the bottle. Make drainage holes in the bottom.
Turn the bottle over so the bottom is facing upward. Use a sharp knife to cut a dozen small holes circling the bottom of the bottle. These are drainage holes, where the water will leak out as your briquettes set. Punch holes in a small plastic bag to create a liner. Take any small plastic bag you have on hand, such as a bag from the grocery store. Use a twig or something similar to punch a dozen holes in the bottom of the bag. These are also drainage holes.
Add your briquettes to the mold. Take a handful of your briquette mixture and place it in the plastic bag. Then, place the bag in the soda bottle. If necessary, add more briquette mixture to fill the soda bottle to the brim. Squeeze out excess water with a can. Place a can of some kind of food, like beans, over the briquette mixture inside of the mold.
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