1. PHYSICAL AND COMBUSTION PROPERTIES OF SAWDUST BRIQUETTES M. Salman Nasir 1*, Abdul Nasir 1, Shafiq Anwar 1, Abid Sarwar 2 1 Department of Structures and Environmental Engineering, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan 2 Department of Irrigation and Drainage, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan *Corresponding Author: Engr. M. Salman Nasir E-mail: salmannasir@uaf.edu.pksalmannasir@uaf.edu.pk Introduction: Traditionally, energy in the form of firewood, twigs and charcoal has been the major source of renewable energy for many developing countries. Although Pakistan accounts for 12% of the global population, it consumes only 4% of global energy. The high and rapid demand for wood fuel consumption is considered as a major contributing factor to the fuel wood crisis in Pakistan. One of energy source is wood waste or sawmill residue. Sawdust constitutes one of the most abundant waste or residue in wood industries. Briquettes made from materials that cost little or no money to obtain such as newspaper or partially decomposed plant waste or sawdust can be an alternate source of domestic and industrial energy to charcoal, firewood, gas, coal and electricity. Presently, the major source of energy to the rural community is fuel wood because other sources of energy (electricity, gas and kerosene) are either not available or grossly inadequate where available and they are beyond the reach of the masses. Fuel wood collection has grave consequence on forest conservation and sustainable forest resources management. This is therefore attractive because it is a sustainable process. The technology may be defined as a densification process for improving the handling characteristics of raw materials and enhancing volumetric calorific value of the biomass. If biomass or agro-waste briquettes are to be used efficiently and rationally as fuel, they must be characterized to determine parameters such as the moisture content, ash content, density, volatile matter, and heating value among others. The objectives of this study are therefore to determine; the binding agent that can give the highest calorific value during burning, the species of wood that has the highest calorific value and to assess the percentage volatile matter, ash content and the fixed carbon of the briquettes. Materials and Methods: Sawdust of Dalbergia Sissoo (Seesam) is collected from the various sawmills of Chiniot at moisture content of about 12%. to investigate the physio-combustion properties of briquettes from sawdust of Dalbergia Sissoo bounded with starch and cow dung. The briquettes were produced with the help of hydraulic jack compactor available in Agricultural Engineering Workshop, University of Agriculture Faisalabad at pressure of 9.5 kg/cm 3. The binders and sawdust were mixed at ratio of 100:20, 100:30, 100:40 and 100:50 in weight respectively. Five replicates of the briquettes of the mixture of the wood with different binding agents were produced. They were re-burnt in the ballistic bomb calorimeter to determine their physical and calorific values. Proximate analysis was carried out on the briquette samples to determine the percentage volatile matter content, % ash content, % content of fixed carbon and heating value of the samples. The procedures of ASTM E711-87 were adopted. To determine the Percentage volatile matter (PVM) 2g of pulverized briquettes sample in a crucible were placed in the oven until a constant weight is obtained. The briquettes were now kept in the furnace at a temperature of 5500c for 10 minutes and weighed after cooling and the PVM was determined with the formula: PVM= (B-C/B) X 100 Where B is the weight of oven dried sample and C is the weight of sample after 10min in the furnace at 5500c. The Percentage Ash content (PAC) was also determined by heating 2g of the briquette sample in the furnace at a temperature of 5500c for 4hrs and weighed after cooling. The PAC was determined: PAC= (D/B) X 100 Where D is the weight of ash and B is the weight of oven dried sample. The Percentage fixed carbon (PFC) was calculated by subtracting the sum of percentage volatile matter (PVM) and percentage ash content (PAC) from 100.Heating value (Hv) was calculated using the formula: Hv = 2.326 (147.6c +144v) Where c is the percentage fixed carbon and v is the percentage volatile matter.The experiment was laid out using the RCBD with 5% level of confidence. Results and Discussion: The physio-combustion properties differ with binder types and ratio of sawdust and binder at confidence level of 5%. The combustion properties namely percentage ash content, percentage volatile matter, percentage fixed carbon and calorific value of briquettes were determined at 5 percent level of confidence. The better performance was observed when briquettes bonded with starch having density of 0.670 g/cm 3 and durability is 96.94%, percent ash content of 2.87%, volatile matter of 9.59%, 82.60% of fixed carbon and calorific value of 8605 kcal/kg while briquettes bonded with cow dung has density of 0.541 g/cm 3, durability 88.51%, percent ash content of 6.54%, percent volatile matter is 7.58%, 90.71 is percent of fixed carbon and calorific value is 8520 kcal/kg. The best briquette was formed when the ratio of sawdust- starch and sawdust cow dung was 100:30 and 100:40 respectively Figures/Tables: Table 1: Mean proximate analyses of the briquettes according to the binders Conclusions: This work was carried out to examine the physical and combustion properties of briquettes produced from sawdust of Dalbergia Sissoo using different binding agents. The quality of the briquettes was influenced by the type of binding agent that was used. The quality of the briquettes that were produced using starch as binder was higher than those bonded with cow dung. There was a little variation in the quality of the product from the mixture of the sawdust of the selected wood species The sawdust from Dalbergia Sissoo species is very suitable for briquette production for domestic and industrial uses. The use of these types of briquettes is environmental friendly, release lesser carbon to the atmosphere, reduce health hazard associated with the use of fuel wood and reduce deforestation and its attended complications. The best briquette was formed when the ratio of sawdust- starch and sawdust cow dung was 100:30 and 100:40 respectively. International Workshop on Renewable Energy Technologies in Pakistan (December 16-18, 2014) Proximate composition Binders Density (g/cm 3 ) Durability % % Volatile matter % Ash% Carbon Heating values (kcal/kg) Starch0.67096.949.592.8782.608605 Cow dung0.54188.517.586.5490.718520