Charcoal Briquetting: An Environmentally Friendly Destination for Waste Materials

Inappropriate disposal of solid waste materials leads to environmental problems. Therefore, the present work promoted the novelty of an environmentally friendly destination of the waste materials such as crude wax, a byproduct from pyrolysis of high-density polyethylene used packaging, and eucalypt leaves (a harvest residue). The application of these waste materials was investigated, each one blended with corn starch, in the production of charcoal briquettes. The briquettes were analyzed in terms of its higher heating value (HHV) and mechanical resistance. Charcoal was produced from the pyrolysis of eucalypt sawdust biomass. The charcoal yield obtained was 35%, and the HHV was 33.02 MJ/kg at 400°C. This temperature was ideal for the production of charcoal, aiming at minimizing energy and yield losses. The waste materials proportions evaluated in the composition of charcoal briquettes were 10%, 20%, and 30%. The corn starch proportion was fixed at 8%. The results showed that briquettes with 30% crude wax presented the best HHV, 23.45 MJ/kg, and greater shatter index, 97.80%. Satisfactory HHV were also achieved with 10% eucalypt leaves, 21.52 MJ/kg. In summary, the waste materials promoted charcoal briquettes with excellent results, providing it high energy efficiency and durability. Therefore, to minimize solid inadequate deposition, this study showed that crude wax and eucalypt leaves could be efficiently designated for charcoal briquetting.