Investigating the energy use of vegetable market waste by briquetting

The present paper reports a study conducted at Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute, aiming at transforming vegetable market waste (VMW) into an energy-briquette. The raw green vegetable market waste gave about 15-20% dry matter after open sun drying. The dried mass of the VMW was converted into a pulverized form and subsequently into briquettes without using any external binding agent. Although the lignin contents of the VMW were low (3.23-5.51%) as compared to other lingocellulosic biomass, good quality briquettes were produced without using any binding agent. The bulk densities of briquettes were almost 10-15 times higher than the material in dry loose form. The calorific value of four different types of VMW used in this study ranged 10.26-13.70 MJ kg(-1) of dry matter. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.