Bio-Briquette Production As Renewable Energy from Waste of Banana Peels and Adhesive of Molasses

The banana culture wastes can be used to produce briquettes as fuel for energy generation. Biomass is one of the sources of energy production with the greatest growth potential in the coming years and can be easily obtained from agricultural production, which generates large amounts of waste. The use of agricultural and agro-industrial wastes as biomass fuel for power generation is being increasingly studied and could be an alternative solution to the problems. These wastes can be availed as briquettes. Briquettes produced from this waste at low cost are an excellent source to produce cheap energy following environmentally correct way and they are, in many case, ideal for replacing fossils fuels in use today, with significant economic and environmental advantages. Among the advantages of using briquettes, it can be mentioned: reduction of thr deforestation, due to subtitution of the wood generally used; production of cheaper energy; reduction of the environmental impact caused by the large amount of wastes and its destination; and reuse of leftover materials.

According to Soffner (2001) on his journal "Pulp Production from Banana Stem", the bananas generates a significant amount of wastes, approximately 200 t/ha/year, since each plant produces one to five bunches of bananas. The most significant waste and more bulky are leaves, pseudostem, peel and stalk. A large amount of banana peel has been left as garbage after industrial processes. The raw material is plentiful and has low economic value. Therefore, the characteristics of banana-peel briquettes including banana peel properties were investigated. Aiming the reuse of wastes, in this work, banana peel was still used and characterized to produce briquettes as fuel in several applications.