Effect of compacting conditions on the viscoelastic properties of banana leaf waste and briquette quality.

This study evaluated the effects of the temperature and pressure used when compacting banana leaves on viscoelastic properties and briquette quality. Banana leaves with 12.4% of humidity were milled at two ranges of average particle size. The briquetting was carried out in a cylinder-piston device coupled to a universal mechanical test machine, under different compacting temperatures (30 and 120 °C) and pressures (20, 40 and 60 MPa). Several parameters, including compacting module, porosity index, final density, critical density, compacting energy, compression ratio, higher heating value, and energy density, were investigated. The banana leaf particles smaller than 1.7 mm performed better during compaction, with low compacting resistance. Temperature showed less influence on final density than pressure. The increase of pressure contributed to decreasing the compacting module and to achieving denser briquettes. It was not necessary to apply high temperature to obtain briquettes with high final density and energy density. The optimum briquetting process parameters identified can be used to produce briquettes from banana leaves at an industrial scale with an extruder. Briquetting adds value to banana leaf waste and reduces environmental pollution.