Strength and durability characterization of pelletized coal–biomass household briquettes

Increase in waste sludge disposal is always seen as a problem from the point of production industry. However, it is clear that the reuse and recycle of sewage sludge could be a serious economic input. The most important action should be to determine the sludge characterizations and direct the producers towards appropriate reuse and recycling opportunities. In this study, reuse method was examined to produce coal briquette, which will constitute an example for waste sludge. In order to make use of the waste sludge, five different coal briquette samples were produced by mixing powdered coal and bitumen together with waste sludge, at different ratios. The overall results indicated that the sample named CB3 having 70% powdered coal, 20% waste sludge, and 10% bitumen was found to be the optimum coal briquette among the other samples produced. The proximate analysis of the optimum briquette sample was carried out according to the Turkish standards and regulations and it was found out that the produced briquette coal can have commercial value with a gross calorific value of 30.03 MJ/kg and 7.30% ash content.