Biomass briquettes are a biofuel substitute to coal and charcoal. Briquettes are mostly used in the developing world, where cooking fuels are not as easily available. There has been a move to the use of briquettes in the developed world, where they are used to heat industrial boilers in order to produce electricity from steam. The briquettes are co-fired with coal in order to create the heat supplied to the boiler when the higher heat is needed.
Briquettes are produced from any agro waste, bio mass and bio waste. It will produce smokeless coal briquettes made from all types of agro waste and biomass waste which currently are not used in conventional briquettes.
As a result of promotional policy by Maharashtra Energy Development Agency, (MEDA), briquetting sector in the state is growing gradually, thereby developing new entrepreneurs, increased income to the farmers & generating employment for rural youths. Due to Maharashtra Energy Development Agency’s incentive scheme, many entrepreneurs are benefitted. MEDA offers subsidy of 20% of the briquette/pellet machine cost or maximum of Rs. 4 lakhs whichever is less.
For good quality biomass briquette production process, biomass is dried out. Manufacturers use torrefaction, carbonization, or varying degrees of pyrolysis. Torrefaction and carbonization are the most efficient forms of drying out biomass, but the use of the briquette determines which method should be used. Basically, this is a physical process. The process is continuous, having a small pressure ram, which continuously rams the raw material through the die, resulting into compressed briquettes.
New technology prevailing in the world market, is a technically improved technology, giving smokeless coal at lower cost and better results out of the bio waste. In India, the major material used for briquettes, is baggasse (sugar cane waste), paddy straw, paddy husk, soyabean husk, cotton stalks, groundnut shells, sawdust, mustard stalks, coir pith, jute sticks and coffee husk etc. Agro waste such as dried plants, leaf waste and other crops residues can be used for briquettes.
In this, extrusion process is carried out, which requires only the single machine of extrusion. But, apart from that, for preparation of raw material, we need chaff cutter.

The list of total machinery is as follows:
1. Briquetting Press
2. Chaff Cutter
3. Weigh Scale
4. Packing Machine

Manufacturing Process & Effluent: In this unit, there is a single process of percussion is to be carried out. Apart from that, as a background process or preparatory process, the chaff cutter is used to prepare raw material in the required smaller input form. All the processes are physical processes and do not involve water and other chemicals.
Thus, there is no effluent generated. There is no waste generated as all the items used are bound together and converted into the briquettes. The waste and the remains can be gathered and be put back in the manufacturing process to be utilized.
Marketing and Demand: There are no such projects around. The technology which is used in India, is a basic technology of mechanical pressing which uses a huge rammer with heavy power, but new technology consist of percussion process, which enables to produce smokeless briquettes with half the power consumption and smaller area. Thus, we can see an immense demand for the product. We intend to target the industries for marketing, situated in the nearby towns where the daily demand of the firewood is very high. The supply against the demand is less than 1 %, which denotes, that we may have to go into huge expansion sooner to capture 1% of market share.

Briquettes production does not require economy of scale. There is no minimum size for a Briquettes manufacturing facility. Also small decentralised Briquettes facilities do not require dedicated technical staff support; they can be operated by locally trained non-technical staff. Small Briquettes plants are more energy and capital efficient than their bigger centralised counterparts.
Within the next ten years the aggregate production of small decentralised Briquettes plants will be greater than the aggregate production of the larger centralised units. The number of small decentralised plants will grow not only because of cost and environmental considerations, but also because such units can be manufactured locally without a high-tech input, and can make use of a greater variety of locally available feed stocks.
Small scale briquettes production generates a win-win situation, in which low tech inputs are transformed into a superior, environmentally friendly fuel, without the need for large capital expenditure, or expensive technology transfers. As a bonus, de-centralisation of fuel supply will reduce distribution costs, stop gross local product transfer, and what is more, empower people, making them energy self-sufficient. The know-how and the hardware are available.
Large scale production requires wasteful intermediate steps, expensive technical controls and supervision, and generates effluents that have to be disposed off at additional cost. Small scale production can side-step these requirements, and has the added advantage of not generating effluents. One kg of raw material will almost form one kg of Briquettes. This makes cost calculations simple.

Biomass plays a unique role in the dynamics of carbon flow in our biosphere. Biological recycling of carbon occurs when plants convert atmospheric CO₂ to carbon-based compounds through photosynthesis. This carbon is eventually returned to the atmosphere as organisms consume the biological carbon compounds and respire. Biomass derived fuels reduce the net atmospheric carbon in two ways. First, they participate in the relatively rapid cycling of carbon to the atmosphere, and from the atmosphere (via photosynthesis). Second, these fuels displace the use of fossil fuels. Combustion of fossil fuels releases carbon that took millions of years to be removed from the atmosphere, while combustion of biomass fuels participates in a process that allows rapid recycle of CO₂ to fuel. The net effect of shifting from fossil fuels to biomass-derived fuels is, thus, to reduce the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere.
Because of the differences in the dynamics of fossil carbon flow and biomass carbon flow, to and from the atmosphere, biomass carbon must be accounted for separately from fossil-derived carbon. The LCI model tracks carbon from the point at which it is taken up as biomass via photosynthesis to its final combustion as briquettes. The biomass-derived carbon that ends up as CO₂ is ultimately reused to produce new biomass. In order to ensure that we accurately credit the briquettes LCI for the amount of recycled CO₂, we provide a material balance on biomass carbon.
Environmental and Health Effects of Briquttes: The use of briquettes results in substantial reduction of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulate matter. The use of briquettes decreases the solid carbon fraction of particulate matter (since the oxygen in briquettes enables more complete combustion to CO₂). There is no sulfur in this fuel. The life-cycle production and use of briquettes produces approximately 80% less carbon dioxide and almost 100% less sulfur dioxide compared to conventional fuel. Briquettes emissions are nontoxic. It is clear that briquettes gives a distinct emission benefit, almost for all regulated and non-regulated pollutants when compared to conventional fuels.
Toxicity & Safety issues: Briquette is non-toxic. It may cause very mild human skin irritation, which is less than the irritation produced by 4% soap and water solution. It is bio-degradable.
Greenhouse effect: Using briquettes as fuel is in effect using solar energy. All biomass based fuels, including ethanol, are derived from the conversion of sunlight to energy (carbohydrates) that takes place in the green leaves of plants.
Plants take up carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere. Burning plant products releases the CO₂ uptake back into the atmosphere, to be taken up again by other plants. The CO₂ is recycled, atmospheric CO₂ levels remain constant. Thus biofuels do not increase the Greenhouse Effect, unlike fossil fuels, which release large amounts of new (or rather very old) CO₂ which has been locked away from the atmosphere for thousands of years.

Barriers for Briquettes introduction: Economics: In order to promote briquettes and to help it compete with coal, country need to draw tax support packages, like lower rate of GST. Though briquette has proven its credentials as a clean alternate fuel to the coal, some barriers do remain for its large-scale commercial introduction. The biggest barrier presently is its cost, which is slightly more than that of coal. However, availability in remote villages will be advantageous in marketing.
Marketing framework: The blending of briquettes with coal can be taken up at the large factories level. However, it should be emphasized that marketing of briquettes blended with coal should be done as an organized trade and this activity should be handled by the coal distributing companies. The briquette to be blended has to mandatory tested for its quality. This will also keep in check any adulteration activity. The storage of briquettes does not need any specialized way. The blending of briquettes is also a simple affair and the mixing machine generally available for cement concrete, is sufficient to make a homogenous blend.
Trade of Briquettes: For making available fuel grade briquettes, the following sequence of events need to be firmed up.
a) Availability of raw material of desired quality.
b) Heat treatment to produce briquettes.
c) Testing of briquettes.
d) Transportation of briquettes, to selected locations for direct use or for blending.
e) Blending of Briquettes with coal for large industries.
f) Financial support.