Design and construction of a manually operated briquetting machine.

Abstract

According to the Uganda Poverty Status Report in 2005, Uganda's forest covers bad diminished from over 10 million hectares in 1890 to less than 4 million. hectares in 2005 This is because only 5% of the rural population having access to electricity, more than 90% of the country's total energy needs in Uganda come from biomass sources. (Ferguson, 21.H 2) The over dependency and unsustainable use of the biomass sources have led to the over exploitation of forest resources and hence a rapid reduction in the country's forest cover overtime. Heavy dependence on imported oil leads to economic and social uncertainties. Currently there is a strong worldwide interest in the development of technologies that low the exploitation renewable energy sources, for both environmental and economic reasons. Biomass a domestic energy source is naturally abundant and represents promising renewable energy opportunity that could provide an alternative to the. use of fossil resources (Sugumaran and Senshadrî,' 2010). To ensure economical and sustainable use of biomass resources, biomass briquetting was devised. This led to the invention and innovations of some briquetting machines. However, some of these machines are inappropriate for use at the local' level. They are manufactured for mass production. They rely on mechanisms that require resources such as extrusion screws, thrust bearings, or refined fuels, which are locally not readily available This creates, the need of an appropriate machine design that suites the local economy. The objectives of this project was to design, construct, and test the capacity and efficiency of the manually operated briquetting machine prototype. In achieving the above objective, the researcher has carried out necessary calculations needed in the design, construction and testing the performance, economic analysis. Therefore, the project, covered the design, construction and testing. Using basic engineering principles and some physical properties of biomass and briquette mixture as size and density, the various components of the manually operated briquetting machine prototype were designed and fabricated.