Study of ratio of energy consumption and gained energy during briquetting process for glycerin-biomass briquette fuel Chatcharin Sakkampang a , Tanakorn Wongwuttanasatian a,b,⇑ a Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand b Centers for Alternative Energy Research and Development (AERD), Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand highlights  Glycerin-biomass briquette fuels were studied.  Energy used during processes was compared to HV of the briquette.  Actual HV and correlated HV were compared and found to be within 5%.  Relationship of total HV was a function of mass fraction of its compositions. article info Article history: Received 12 November 2012 Received in revised form 5 July 2013 Accepted 5 July 2013 Available online 19 July 2013 Keywords: Glycerin Biomass Heating value Briquette fuel abstract This paper investigated the feasibility of using the mixture of glycerin and biomass as an alternative fuel by measuring the energy used in the densification process and the energy gained from the briquette fuels. The correlation of the heating values between the calculated values and the actual values was also deter- mined. Rice husk, sawdust, sugarcane bagasse, and sugarcane leaf were used as biomass. Different amounts of glycerin were mixed with the biomass during the densification process. The ratios of the energy used compared with the energy gained were approximately 1–3% for domestic-scale solar drying condition and 12–18% for industrial-scale machine drying condition. Heating values of the briquettes increased with the increasing amount of glycerin. Using the mixture of glycerin and biomass in the den- sification process was considered feasible to be further developed as an alternative fuel. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In Thailand, an abundance of waste, e.g., palm, jatropha, coco- nut oil, and used vegetable oil, can be converted to biodiesel. As a result, the Thai government has encouraged and supported bio- diesel production in order to reduce crude oil import. The Ministry of Energy also established a policy to increase energy self- dependence by introducing B5 (95% diesel and 5% biodiesel) to the community and the industry [1]. This policy has resulted in the increase in biodiesel production and producers both at the community scale and the industrial scale. During the biodiesel pro- duction, glycerin is created as a by-product (1 ton of biodiesel yields 0.11 ton of crude glycerin) [2]. Purified glycerin is commonly used in the cosmetic and food industries but the cost of purifying crude glycerin is relatively high [3–5]. Crude glycerin has high vis- cosity and flash point, so it cannot be directly used as a fuel, unless it is mixed with other fuels [6,7]. In addition, it is contaminated with salt, alcohol, heavy metals, and water, and normally discarded as waste. Currently, there are many large-scale biodiesel manufac- turers and the amount of crude glycerin is greater than the demand of the industry, causing the price of crude glycerin to plummet [3]. Moreover, the number of community-scale biodiesel producers has also risen, creating additional amounts of crude glycerin. The amount of glycerin waste has been rising and creating storage and disposal problems. Nevertheless, the staggering abundance of glycerin and its low price are considered economically attractive to be studied for alter- native fuel. Oezkan et al. observed the performance of biodiesel with glycerin in an engine test and found out that biodiesel with glycerin could be used as fuel with some modifications [8]. Chaiyaomporn and Chavalparit used palm fiber and palm shell mixed with glycerin as a raw material to find the optimum ratio of pelletized fuel, by which they investigated the physical proper- ties of the pellet by varying the ratio of mixture and particle size of raw material. The result showed that the optimum ratio of pellet- ized fuel (palm fiber:water:waste glycerin) 50:10:40, yielding 982.2 kg/m 3 and 22.5 MJ/kg for the specific gravity and the heating value, respectively [9]. Brady and Tam evaluated the energy of fuel 0016-2361/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2013.07.023 ⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand. Tel.: +66 43202845 (office), +66 803173170 (mobile); fax: +66 43202849. E-mail addresses: chatcharin_pookie@hotmail.com (C. Sakkampang), tan- won@kku.ac.th (T. Wongwuttanasatian). Fuel 115 (2014) 186–189 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Fuel journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel