A Research on Briquetting of Greenhouse Pepper Crop Residues

Abstract

Greenhouse cultivation is widespread in Turkey, and tomato, pepper and eggplant among the vegetables are grown densely in greenhouses. Every year, huge amounts of crop residue are produced from these greenhouses, and the vast majority of these residues are dumped in landfills and out of the greenhouses without evaluating in any way. These crop residues are organic matters and can be evaluated as a biomass energy source. In this study, dried ground greenhouse pepper crop residues were briquetted in the hydraulic press with maximum capacity of 210 MPa and a punch-conical die set, and physical properties of briquettes regarding briquette quality were determined. The briquetting experiments were conducted at 7.06 % moisture content (w.b.), 0.732 mm geometric mean diameter of ground pepper crop samples using three pressure levels of 115, 150 and 185 MPa. The briquettes were kept in a room at 20 ºC temperature and 50% relative humidity for 7 days to ensure their stabilization. The density, shatter index, tumbler index, water resistance and equivalent humidity content (humidity resistance) of briquettes were then determined. Briquettes were produced with an average diameter of 61.6 mm during the briquetting process. The result of physical tests showed that the produced briquettes were extremely high quality. The maximum density, shatter and tumbler resistance were 1075 kg/m³, 98.21% and 90.83% at compression pressure of 185 MPa, respectively. Additionally, while the effect of ambient humidity on all briquettes was very limited, they were completely disintegrated when dunked in a container filled water for very short time lower than 30 seconds.