Combustion characteristics behavior of Pterocarpus indicus leaves waste briquette at various particle size and pressure

As one of the countries with a high variety of plant species, Indonesia becomes a potential source for biomass fuel. One plant that commonly found in the street of Surabaya, Indonesia is Pterocarpus indicus. The plant exists in large number and produced litters from its leaves waste. The litters negatively affect Surabaya city cleanliness. The previous study suggested a solution for this problem is by converting these litters into biomass fuel in the form of briquette. The solution may help this problem by reducing the wastes in Surabaya street and avoiding unnecessary handling of these wastes by burning or burying. In order to maximize the potential of Pterocarpus indicus leaves waste briquette, two primary parameters of briquette production were investigated in this study. These parameters are particle size of briquette and pressure used for compacting the briquette. This study used four burning characteristics (flame temperature, ignition time, burning time and combustion rate) to determine the best particle size and pressure to obtain the highest quality of briquette. The result of the study indicates Pterocarpus indicus produced with particle size of 60 mesh and compacting pressure of 2 MPa yield the best quality of briquette.