Experimental Studies on Chopping Cotton Stalk and Briquetting Process

Chopping crop residues to produce biomass briquette was investigated under Egyptian conditions. Three chopping methods: hammer mill, helical knife and straight knife choppers were considered for chopping cotton stalk. The test results indicated that straight knife chopper has higher chopping capacity, higher yield of small or fine particles and lower energy consumption than other two choppers. A Shimada extrusion press type machine was used for briquetting experiment of chopped materials. Results indicated that high quality briquette of density from 1.13 to 1.21 g/cm^３ and low heating value 18.34 MJ/kg was obtained under controlling operating parameters: moisture content ranged from 8% to 12%, heating temperature between 150～180 ℃ and maximum particle size 12.5 mm of chopped cotton stalk.