PRODUCTION AND PROPERTY ANALYSIS OF CARBONIZED CORN STOVER BRIQUETTES USING DIFFERENT ANIMAL MANURE AS BINDER

The main objective of this study is to produce briquettes from abundant animal manure waste as alternative binding agent. The production, water boiling test, and friability test was conducted at Mindanao State University — General Santos City. Proximate analyses were analyzed at ASTS, General Santos City. the animal manures that were used in the study were from cattle, poultry and swine. Corn starch were used as the control treatment. The study was laid out in Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with 3 treatments and 4 replications. The study was analyzed using ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) and Least Significant Difference was used to test the mean comparison. The water boiling test results clearly indicated that animal manure as binder could be used as substitute for corn starch. Among the binders, the briquettes with cattle manure as binder perform closely with corn starch. Results of friability test indicates that briquettes with animal manure can resist transport handling and breakage. However, cattle manure did not reach the minimum allowable impact resistance for briquettes to be acceptable. Furthermore, the findings that animal manure could be used as substitute as binder were supported with the values of proximate analysis that includes moisture content, ash content, volatile combustible matter, fixed carbon, and heating value. The difference in values from the control treatment was not too large. The result of the study attest that it is practical and suitable to use animal manure as briquette binder