Design, Fabrication and Testing of a Coconut Waste Briquetting Machine Paired with a Single Shaft Shredder

Briquetting is turning waste into solid fuels called briquettes, which can be used as fuel for power generation and cooking applications. Coconut wastes can be processed by a de-husking machine, decorticator machine, and carbonization process to make charcoal. However, these existing machines include thorough preparations before processing. This study aims to design and fabricate a briquetting machine paired with a single shaft shredder and uses a piston press for the briquetting process, which utilizes all unused parts of coconut waste and reduces processes involved in waste processing. The machine can produce coconut briquettes at a rate of 9.58 kg/hr or 82 pieces of briquettes per hour. The produced briquettes were dried for three periods, and the period with the highest resulting heating value was 14 days. The resulting heating value of produced coconut briquettes is 15.21 MJ/kg. The heating value of the uncharred coconut waste is 11.54 MJ/kg which showed an increase of 31.8% [10]. As a result, the coconut waste briquette is acceptable for use in cooking and household applications.