Characterization of coconut husk briquettes using cow dung as a binder with comparison to Elaeis guineensis.

This study was performed to assess the properties of combustion of the briquette formed using coconut husk bound with the cow dung in the ratio of 3:2 to higher its combustion rate. Materials and methods: It determines the proximate analysis of the sample which shows the percentage of the moisture content, volatile content %, ash content %, fixed carbon value and calorific value using the formulae with the help of the muffle furnace and hot air oven. Using clinicalc.com, sample size was determined as N=18 for each group utilizing the existing literature with a =n alpha error- threshold of 0.05, a 95 % confidence interval, G power of 80 %, and an enrolment ratio at 1. Results: The result showed that the coconut husk with cow dung binder showed a fixed carbon value of 10.87 % and heating value of 30.30 Kcal/kg, fixed carbon value is 10.19 % and Heating value is 29.57 Kcal/kg for plain coconut husk. SPSS version 28 revealed that the both pairs are statistically significant for the factors such as moisture content (p= 0.022), volatile content (p=0.024), ash content (p=0.01) and the fixed carbon value (p=0.04), where p<0.05. Conclusion: This proclaims that the briquette produced from the coconut husk that is binded with cow dung has a slight increase in the combustion rate than that of the plain coconut husk and the briquette formed using the sample of Elaeis guineensis with coco husk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]