DESIGN. FABRICATION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF PORTABLE CARBONIZER USING BAMBOO LEAVES

The study was focused on the fabrication of portable carbonizer that is capable of producing charcoal using bamboo leaves. The carbonizer was tested and evaluated at Mindanao State University, Fatima, General Santos City. The results of the different openings in terms of average operating time, average charcoaling rate and average percentage of char produced were 25.86 minutes, 0.2401 kg/hr and 15.31% respectively, for full opened combustion chamber. Then, 28.42 minutes, 0.2265 kg/hr and 15.87% for 'A opened combustion chamber and lastly, 28.81 minutes, 0.2407 kg/hr and 16.28% for 'A opened combustion chamber. It could be concluded that 1/4 opened combustion chamber produced the highest amount of char for all types of loadings but full load would be used in order to produce high amount of char and perform lower number of operations. Using the Randomized Complete Block Design, there is no significant difference between different openings of combustion chamber in terms of operating time and charcoaling rate but there is a significant difference in terms of percentage of char produced. In addition, there is a significant difference between the different loadings in terms of operating time, charcoaling rate and percentage of char produced. The machine can be a source of income by converting the wastes into charcoal that can be form into briquettes. Homemakers can engage in charcoal production by using it for additional profit. It has an easy handling system and operation but can be further improve for better performance and increase of char recovery.