Physical properties characterization of fuel briquette made from spent bleaching earth Sri Suhartini a, *, Nur Hidayat a , Sieni Wijaya b a Department of Agricultural Industry Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, University of Brawijaya, Jl. Veteran 1, Malang, East Java 65145, Indonesia b Alumni of Department of Agricultural Industry Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, University of Brawijaya, Jl. Veteran 1, Malang, East Java 65145, Indonesia article info Article history: Received 4 December 2009 Received in revised form 19 June 2011 Accepted 1 July 2011 Available online xxx Keywords: Spent bleaching earth Briquette Maltrodextrin Pressure Compressive strength Calorific value abstract Cooking oil industry in Indonesia produces a massive amount of solid waste, called Spent Bleaching Earth (SBE). Briquetting of this waste can be a good alternative to achieve zero-waste, as well as minimizing energy cost, in this industry. Therefore, the valorization of SBE as briquette was studied using different pressure and maltodextrin dosage. The results show that the physical characteristics of SBE briquette were similar to that of standard value for the wood briquette (Indonesian National Standard or SNI 1-6235-2000). ª 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The global energy consumption increased sharply and is predicted to continuously boost for the next 50 years, caused by the industrialization growth both in developed and devel- oping countries [1]. Indonesia, as a developing country, has vast potential resources for renewable energy, of which only a small portion has been utilized [2]. For example, agricultural and agro-industrial waste which is gradually increasing due to more agricultural production. Currently, biomass is the only clean renewable energy source that can help to significantly diversify fuels throughout the world. Briquette is a means to convert biomass residues through simple technology that is inexpensive and suitable to be managed by small communities or private firms [3]. Previ- ously, the study of briquetting conducted with wheat straw [4] and agricultural residues such as mustard stalk, maize stalk, and groundnut shells [5]. In Malaysia, palm oil residues, such as shell and fiber, were transformed into briquettes with a gross calorific value of 16.4 MJ kg 1 , the ash content of 6%, and the moisture content of 12% [6]. Recently, many studies have been conducted on the production of fuel briquettes from industrial waste. For instance, briquettes from waste paper and coconut husk which had moisture content from 5.4% to 13.3% [7], rice straw and rice bran were feasible to be converted into solid biomass fuel using a hot-pressing temperature [8], pelletized waste (including refuse derived fuel or RDF, wood and paper) * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ62 81233118508. E-mail address: sri_suhartini04@yahoo.com (S. Suhartini). Available at www.sciencedirect.com http://www.elsevier.com/locate/biombioe biomass and bioenergy xxx (2011) 1 e6 Please cite this article in press as: Suhartini S, et al., Physical properties characterization of fuel briquette made from spent bleaching earth, Biomass and Bioenergy (2011), doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2011.07.002 0961-9534/$ e see front matter ª 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2011.07.002