This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English AgricultureReport.
In many parts of the world, peopleburn wood and other agricultural products for cooking and heating.However, as populations increase, materials for burning can be moredifficult to find. One way to make better use of such materials isto press them together into a solid fuel. This is calledbriquetting. The objects that are burned are called briquettes.Briquettes are usually no bigger than a person’s hand. They can beany shape.
Charcoal is a common form of briquetting material. It is foundthroughout the world. Charcoal burns with a higher heat energy valueper kilogram than wood.
Charcoal briquettes are made from specially treated wood.Briquettes can also be made from many other kinds of materials.These include rice coverings, paper, food wastes, fish wastes, andwastes from processing coconuts and coffee.
In general, anything that burns but is not found in aneasy-to-use size can be used to makes briquettes.
The first step in briquetting is to collect a large amount of thematerial. Then the material is cut or crushed to make it smaller.Next it is combined with a small amount of water and a substancecalled a binder. A binder keeps the material from falling apart whenthe pressure is taken away. Clay, mud, cement and starch arecommonly used binders.
At this point the material and binder may be partly dried.Finally, the substance is pushed together under high pressure in amachine. The machines used for families or in small briquettingbusinesses are often operated by hand. They shape the material intobriquettes that can be burned immediately or stored and sold later.
The same machines that make blocks and bricks from mud and strawcan be used for briquetting. An example of such a machine is a CinvaRam.
Machines with electric motors can also be used. A twentyhorsepower motor can be used for briquetting with rice husks. Twoworkers using such a machine can produce one-hundred-fifty kilogramsof briquettes every hour. The machine can operate twenty-four hoursa day.
You can get more information about briquetting from the groupVolunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet atv-i-t-a dot o-r-g.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by GaryGarriott. This is Steve Ember.