Investigating the energy use of vegetable market waste by briquetting

• Present study reports energy use of vegetable market waste by briquetting.
• Available seasonal vegetable market waste has the good energy density.
• Briquetting of vegetable market waste to convert it into useful energy.
• Briquettes can be prepared without using any external binding agents.
• Briquettes can use for domestic cooking, gasification and in boilers.

The present paper reports a study conducted at Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute, aiming at transforming vegetable market waste (VMW) into an energy-briquette. The raw green vegetable market waste gave about 15–20% dry matter after open sun drying. The dried mass of the VMW was converted into a pulverized form and subsequently into briquettes without using any external binding agent. Although the lignin contents of the VMW were low (3.23–5.51%) as compared to other lingo-cellulosic biomass, good quality briquettes were produced without using any binding agent. The bulk densities of briquettes were almost 10–15 times higher than the material in dry loose form. The calorific value of four different types of VMW used in this study ranged 10.26–13.70 MJ kg−1 of dry matter.