2004-6-21
This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture
Report.
In many parts of the world, people
burn wood and other agricultural products for cooking and heating.
However, as populations increase, materials for burning can be more
difficult to find. One way to make better use of such materials is
to press them together into a solid fuel. This is called
briquetting. The objects that are burned are called briquettes.
Briquettes are usually no bigger than a person's hand. They can be
any shape.
Charcoal is a common form of briquetting material. It is found
throughout the world. Charcoal burns with a higher heat energy value
per kilogram than wood.
Charcoal briquettes are made from specially treated wood.
Briquettes can also be made from many other kinds of materials.
These include rice coverings, paper, food wastes, fish wastes, and
wastes from processing coconuts and coffee.
In general, anything that burns but is not found in an
easy-to-use size can be used to makes briquettes.
The first step in briquetting is to collect a large amount of the
material. Then the material is cut or crushed to make it smaller.
Next it is combined with a small amount of water and a substance
called a binder. A binder keeps the material from falling apart when
the pressure is taken away. Clay, mud, cement and starch are
commonly used binders.
At this point the material and binder may be partly dried.
Finally, the substance is pushed together under high pressure in a
machine. The machines used for families or in small briquetting
businesses are often operated by hand. They shape the material into
briquettes that can be burned immediately or stored and sold later.
The same machines that make blocks and bricks from mud and straw
can be used for briquetting. An example of such a machine is a Cinva
Ram.
Machines with electric motors can also be used. A twenty
horsepower motor can be used for briquetting with rice husks. Two
workers using such a machine can produce one-hundred-fifty kilograms
of briquettes every hour. The machine can operate twenty-four hours
a day.
You can get more information about briquetting from the group
Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at
v-i-t-a dot o-r-g.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary
Garriott. This is Steve Ember.