2nd International Seminar On “Utilization of Non-Conventional Energy Sources for Sustainable Development of Rural Areas

ISNCESR’16
17th & 18th March 2016

Fuel from Green Tender Coconut

B.Koteswararao1,L.Ranganath2,K.Radha Krishna3
1,2,3
Assistant professor, K L University
Vaddeswaram,Guntur,India-522502
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Abstract: India is known for its production in tender coconuts. Crops laid throughout the year not like any other fruits or vegetables.
The usage of coconut is immense, in temples, homes, drinking purpose etc., we can see lots of tender coconut shells as waste after using
in above places and found them near to street bins and road sides. Our paper is focusing on utilizing that waste in to coconut
Briquettes. The tender coconut will be mashed in to pieces and then pressed by special pressing machine by supplying heat to remove
unwanted coir .Briquettes produced by this procedure will be having hallow elliptical shape Thus the briquettes we are looking to
replace fuel is formed. The main difference from normal coal to our paper is efficiency and also environment friendly . The solid
briquettes can be burnt up to 3-4 hrs. where as normal one only light up to 20 minutes at the max . The normal coal produces carbon
dioxide, sometimes carbon monoxide and sulphur oxides. But this coconut shell brick lead to clean environment. our aim is to use the
waste product into fuel as well as control the dieses which will cause by wastage of tender coconut in open places.

Keywords: Briquettes1 ,Crops2, Elliptical3, street4 ,temples5, vegetables6.

1. Introduction grown in the India mainly in villages. The extremely high

Coconut or Tender Coconut once we heard this word, the concentration and hardness make coconut shell an excellent
first country to hit our minds is INDIA. Coconuts are used on provide for stock for charcoal and activated carbon filters.
regular basis for several purposes like marriages, ceremonies, While the shell is widely used for these applications, the
temples, drinking purpose etc., everyone uses the water or price of charcoal is low and stipulate for activated carbon
white flesh inside it .After the usage it will be thrown out, as filters utilize only a small fraction of the coconut shell that is
waste and this waste is enormous on roads of cities and in available. The pith’s other property, the chemical reactivity,
villages. Our focus is to utilize this waste in to a form as a is the subject of this study. Naturally[1] taking place
household product. chemicals in the pith allow it to be hot pressed into a binder
The coconut shell is hard and tough in nature (outside) this less particle embark that may be used as a wood substitute in
coconut shell in villages will be used as fuel for campfires, places where wood resources are scant and costly or where
cooking purposes. Looking deep in that application point of there are sell demands for green materials. It has been said
view, it can be utilized as replacement for coal in villages that man has made everything from pith except money, but
and also in power plants . To form a raw coconut as briquette that notion is going to change. Coconut[2] pith will quickly
it needs to undergo different process. be formed into a viable construction product that will help
elevate the value of coconuts and improve the profits of
PROCESS WE ARE FOLLWING millions of coconut farmers around the world. Coconut shells
are also used to made charcoal which is use as fuel and this
coconut charcoals are outlying better than other charcoals.
Coconut shell charcoal[23,24,25] is generally used to
fabricate active carbon. Normally on the go carbon is known
Figure 1: process followed as the charcoal which has treat with oxygen’s. Active[3]
Shells of tender coconut are gather and spread on a colander carbon is use widely for removing impurities. This coconut
and then fed in to a masher as shown in figure below (where shell charcoals are widely used in purification industry[4]
all these coconut shells will be cut in to pieces of 50mm size. and other industries which active carbon are used.
These sizes will be further cut down in to 10 mm size. After
finishing of sizing the next is separation chamber. The pieces
Availability of source
will be collected and dried in sunlight for days and then grind Table:2.Production of Tender coconut
it powder form. The formed powder will be mixed with water S.No Area Production Percentage
and then compress will form a briquette. 1 Andhrapradesh 6.85 6
2 Karnataka 21.51 21
3 Tamilnadu 19.10 19
In general coconut shells has a concentration of about 1.2
4 Kerala 50.56 50
g/cm3 and is five times harder than the hardest hardwood

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Parthivi College of Engineering & Management, C.S.V.T. University, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, India
 2nd International Seminar On “Utilization of Non-Conventional Energy Sources for Sustainable Development of Rural Areas
ISNCESR’16
17th & 18th March 2016
5 Maharashtra 1.09 2 Coconut is a dry drupe the outer thin layer is named as
6 Pondicherry 0.89 1 exocarp and middle layer is a mesocarp and hard inner layer
called an endocarp.
These calculations taken depend on the seller in respective
http://www.geochembio.com/biology/organisms/coconut/
state coconut seller and distributors. These may vary from 2
to 3% in production.

In this paper we are elaborating the machine parts and

process to our desired output.

Figure 3: Nomenclature of Coconut shell

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph10.htm
Figure 2: Tender coconut

2.Literature Review
As the availability of wood is increasing , most of the
countries are turning towards re-usage of residual waste from
agriculture or other parts[4] (grover and Misra ,1996;
Tripathi et al . 1998) The residue from the agricultural waste
has many disadvantages like low calorific value , difficulty in
burning , inventory control , transportation problems. These
disadvantages with low density will be converted in to high
density fuel in the form of briquettes. When we heard the
Figure 4 : Description of cocunt nomenclature
word [10]Briquettes, which mean it as replacement or form
of coal. And these coal briquettes is commonly used for
The nut sizes varies from 147 to 196 mm in diameter and 245
various purposes like campfire, household and for other
to 294 mm long. The thickness of fleshy layer is about
purposes. Goldstein, 1981). The production of these residual
12.25mm and is known as coconut meat. Coming to
briquettes has drastically increased with various technologies.
cultivation aspect more than 90 countries cultivate the crops
On the other hand it is very easy for transportation. (
of coconut throughout world. 15.28% of the global area and
sugumaran and Seshadir 2009)
19.44% of global production is form India, next to India it is
They are two types of residues 1. Crop residues 2. Agro
Indonesia.
industrial residues. Our paper is focusing on agro industrial
The coconut meat was chopped in to fragments by back and
residual waste especially coconut shell & coir. During our
forth rotation of a knife shaped shallow spoon Rey(1995).
child hood, we saw dried coconuts were thrown in to
Mix (1957) designed a machine which remove the shell from
campfire to prepare food along with this dung[5,6,7] cakes.
coconut meat. With high pressure water the coconut meat
Taking this in to account researchers given a thought how we
will be separated from its shell by Blandis and Glaser
can make this in a better and that is where our briquettes are
(1973).So far de-shelling machines[11,12,13] are not in to
in to picture. After world war II , as there was scarcity in fuel
market, and our objective is make an attempt to achieve this.
resources people started using drenched waste paper along
Briquetting technology is classified in to three forms one
with other domestic waste which can be flammable .
at high pressure, medium pressure and low pressure. For high
(Lardinois and Klundert ,1993) . Based on the equipment
pressure compaction is more than enough, in case of medium,
used to form a briquette , they are categorized in to 5 types :
compaction along with heating. Finally for low pressure
manual press , roller press, screw press, piston press
briquette will be formed by a binding agent.
according to FAO(1990). A survey was conducted by
In this paper we are following medium pressure compaction
FAO(1990) on briquette plants established in different parts
to form briquette.
of world and the result was huge failure, due to lack of
knowledge on procedure, misusing of spares,
implementation failure , lack of government support

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Parthivi College of Engineering & Management, C.S.V.T. University, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, India
 2nd International Seminar On “Utilization of Non-Conventional Energy Sources for Sustainable Development of Rural Areas
ISNCESR’16
17th & 18th March 2016
3.Cutting machine Figure 5: 50mm dia cutter
The main components of the machine are as follows :
 Belt conveyer, After shredding to 50 mm size , the pieces of shell are fed to
 Damper motor, another slicer mesh for further reduction in size i.e., from
 Chopper blades, 50mm to 10mm .
 Frame.
Frame is a structural component which can withstand all the
load acting on it .The cutting machine comprises of two
shafts intermediate shaft and cutter shaft made up of mild
steel . These two shafts are ended by ball bearings. A 3 HP
power motor is attached to base for transmitting power from
motor shaft to cutting shaft through intermediate shaft. Low
speed cutting is preferable as the strength of coconut shell is
low.
The tender coconuts dumped in the funnel. A conveyer
system connecting the damper and funnel. Machine consist of
Belt Conveyer, Damper Motors, Damper Pistons, and
Chopper Blades. This cutting machine specially design for
the coconuts it is more rigid. It has good material properties
like stiffness ductility and corrosion resistant, this machine
has more flexibility to operate, this is operation[18,19] made
with the help of motor the following details are given below Figure 6 :10mm Dia cutter

Table 1: Machine specifications 2.1 Working Principle

Name of the
S.No Specifications The tender coconut passes over the belt conveyer to major
component
chopper machine. There the pieces cut into 50 mm size slices
1 Belt Conveyer 8 meters length
or square pieces. The pieces collected in the bottom collector
a) 5 H.P Motor
2 Damper Motors and again passes through the conveyor and rush in 5 mm size
b) 3 H.P motor
pieces in the minor chopper.
a) 50 mm Diameter
3 Damper Pistons
b)15 mm Diameter

4 Chopper Blades 10+5

The chopper blades were shown in the figure below , The

cutters are framed like mesh , when the coconut from the
source moves on to the mesh are , the damper will damp the
coconut in to pieces , and further ramming will lead to
desired output (here 50mm size). The material is mild steel
for better accurate and reliability .
Figure 6:Primary chopper

Fig:3. Primary chopper output

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Parthivi College of Engineering & Management, C.S.V.T. University, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, India
 2nd International Seminar On “Utilization of Non-Conventional Energy Sources for Sustainable Development of Rural Areas
ISNCESR’16
17th & 18th March 2016
The rate of cutting is 5Kg/minute. Whereas major chopper than that of the reference sample, which is accepted by the
speed is 12Kg/minute. The cutting pieces are going to kept in market.by sending the coconuts into a heating room then it is
presence of sunlight for 7 to 10 days depend on sun intensity. placed for some time keep with warming in big quantities
with in shells. the traditional method of reducing the
moisture content of the coconuts is by open sun drying.
During traditional open sun drying, the farmers spread
coconut on mats, cement floors, roof tops or even on soil
along the roadsides so as to expose to solar intensity until the
completion of drying. In this method the samples are exposed
to direct sun light and as a result the coconut pieces heat up
and the internal temperature[15,16] rises without regulation
which destroy color, vitamins and tang giving rise to low
quality production that cannot compete with the mainland
product thereby ensuring quicker drying of the products than
the open sun drying method by sending to the heating room.

Fig 7: Prototype of Chopper machine

Fig: 9.sun light application

Fig: 8 secondary chopper output

2. Drying of pieces

The small size briquettes are keeping in closed case and

applying heat in the absence of oxygen for some time to
remove moisture content. In this process we are placing a
Figure 10 : Heating Room
vent hole to remove the gases which are going to generate in
this process. Now those briquettes we can use like a fuel for
small scale industries which are going to run by het 5.Results
applications. An industrial-scale bunch fluidized bed dryer
was used to dry lightly chopped coconut pieces. The effects Calorific values and other relevant information mentioned in
of different operating parameters, i.e., the values and pattern the following table. These briquettes[20,21,22] can replace
of air velocity and temperature, on the drying kinetics and the coal usage and LPG usage in sun rising industries which
some selected quality attributes of dried coconut viz. color are running on Thermal applications. Uses include domestic
and surface oil content were then examined. It was found that applications because of its less smoke and odor.
the color of the dried product was affected regularly by the
air temperature, while the size of surface oil was affected Table: 2.Specifications of outputs
S.No Name Specification
regularly by the air velocity. The surface oil comfortable of
1 Calorific value 2800-3600Kcal/Kg
the product dried by any tested conditions was still higher 2 Ash content 10.5%

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Parthivi College of Engineering & Management, C.S.V.T. University, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, India
 2nd International Seminar On “Utilization of Non-Conventional Energy Sources for Sustainable Development of Rural Areas
ISNCESR’16
17th & 18th March 2016
3 Moisture content 8.5% [9] “Design and Manufacture of a 30-ton Tender Press” ,
4 Volatile matter 17-20% Mechanical Engineering Department, Federal
5 Fixed carbon 65%-73% University of Technology Yola, Adamawa State,
6 Foreign Matter 11-13% Nigeria, Jan 2011.
[10] “Force and position control of a tender press” .
Advantages [11] Dr.Ing T. Hong, Dr. Richard K., “Computerized Design
Analysis of Machine Tool Tender System Dynamics”,
1. Freely available.
FES/BarDyne Technology Transfer Publication.
2. Control the growth of mosquitoes in urban areas. [12] V. D. Lee, “Configuration Development Of A Tender
3. Avoid normal wood with usage of this one. Press For Preloading the Toroidal Field Coils of the
4. Low emissions. Compact Ignition Tokamak”, Fusion Engineering
5. Good smell output. Design Canter and McDonnell Douglas Astronautics
6. Low ash content. Company , 1998.
7. Easy to travel because of its cross section. [13] ManarAbdElhakimEltantawie, “Design, manufacture
and simulate a tender bending press”, International
journal of mechanical and robotic research, 2013.
6.Conclusion [14] Foale, M.A. The Coconut Palm. In: Chopra, V.L. and
We framed hallow elliptical briquettes by using our machine. Peter K.V. edited Handbook of Industrial Crops.
The calorific value of this briquettes is much higher than Haworth Press, New York, 2005
normal wood and easy to carry. The operational cost is less [15] APCC. Coconut Food Process – Coconut Processing
Technology. Information Document. Arancon, Jr, R.N.,
compare to bulk quantity. The fuel produced is a good
ed. Asian and Pacific Coconut Community. Jakarta,
replacement for coal applications. Indonesia,1996. [3] Brandis, C. and Glaser, F. (1973).
Specification for separations of kernels from coconuts.
Philippine patent No: 9865.
[16] Madhavan, K. (1985). Design and development of copra
moisture meter. J. Planta. Crops. 16: 113-116.
[17] Tilledaratne, H.A. Processing of Coconut Products inSri
Lanka. Asian and Pacific Coconut Informantion
Document. Arancon, Jr., R.N., ed. Asian and Pacific
Coconut Community. Jakarta, Indonesia.
[18] Thampan, P.K. Handbook on Coconut Palm. Oxford &
IBH Publishing Co., New Delhi. 1996.
Figure 11: Elliptical briquettes [19] Ohler, J.G.. Coconut, Tree of Life. FAO Plant
Production and Protection Paper 57. FAO, Rome, Italy,
1984.
References [20] Rethinam, P. (2003). Prospects for the coconut industry.
[1] Sandhyarani, Ningthoujam.." http://www.buzzle.com J. Planta. Crops. 31(1): 1-7.
/articles/how-to-make-activated-charcoal.html. [21] Rey, H.O. (1955). Device for removing meat from
[2] "Fuel from the Fields: Charcoal from Agricultural coconut. Philippine Patent No. 793.
Waste." edited by Massachusetts Institute of [22] Thampan, P.K. (1981). Hand Book of Coconut Palm,
Technology: Practical Action, 2009. Oxford and IBH Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. Pp. 311.
[3] “Effect of rice husk ash on cement stabilized laterite”, [23] Shiwalkar B.D., Design Data for Machine Elements,
Leonardo Electronic J. Practice and Technol., vol. 6, Dattatraya Publications, Nagpur (India).
no. 11, pp. 47-58, 2007. [24] Sharma, P.C. and Aggarwal, D.K. Machine Design.
[4] “Potentials of rice husk ash for soil stabilization,” S.K. Kataria and Sons, Nai Sarak Dechi. Katra books
Assumption University Journal of Technology, vol. 11, @yahoo.com, 2006.
no. 4, pp. 246-250, April 2008. [25] Khurmi, R.S. and Gupta, J.K.. A Textbook of Machine
[5] “Tropical residual soils”. A Geological Society Design (S.I. Units), Eurasia publishing House (PVT)
Engineering Group Working Party Revised Report, Ltd., Ram Nagar, New Delhi-11005s, 2005
Geological Society Publishers, London, 1997. [26] IS 2494-1974. Indian Standards. Indian StandardsI
[6] “An assessment of cement - PFA and lime - PFA used to institute, New Delhi, 1974. [15] Rajput, R.K. Strength
stabilize clay size materials”, in Bull. of the of Materials, S. Chand &Company Ltd, Ram Nagar,
International Ass. of Eng. Geology, no. 49, L. Primel, New Delhi, 2006.
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[7] Smith & Associates, “Tender Presses”,530 Hollywood
Drive, Monroe, Michigan 48162-2943, Dec 1999.

[8] Q.S.KHAN, “Introduction to tender presses & press

body” volume-1, tanveer publications.

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Parthivi College of Engineering & Management, C.S.V.T. University, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, India
 2nd International Seminar On “Utilization of Non-Conventional Energy Sources for Sustainable Development of Rural Areas
ISNCESR’16
17th & 18th March 2016
B.KOTESWARARAO.B was born in yedlurupadu, India, in
1990. He received the B.Tech. Degree in
Mechanical Engineering from the JNTU
Technological University Kakinada, India, in
2011, and the M.Tech. Degree in thermal
Engineering from the university college
of Kakinada, India, in 2014.Presently he is a
Research Scholar in K.L University and also
working as Assistant Professor. From May
2011 to December 2012, he has been with the Department of
mechanical Engineering, RVR Institute of Engineering &
Technology. Where he was an Assistant Professor. His current
research interests include alternative fuels, automobile emission
reduction , and power plant optimization.

L.Ranganath was born in vijaywada ,

India , in 1985.He received B.tech Degree in
Mechanincal Engineering from SCSVMV
university and Masters from Oxford
Brookes university(London). Currently he is
working as Asst.Professor in KLuniversity ,
Vijayawada.

K.RADHAKRISHNA was born in

Vijayawada, India, in 1981. He received
the B.Tech. Degree in Mechanical
Engineering from the JNTU
Technological University Hydrabad,
India, in 2005, and the M.E. Degree in
CAD/CAM from from Andhra
university in 2011 .Presently he is a
Research Scholar in K.L u niversity and also working as
Assistant Professor.From May 2012. alternative fuels, automobile
emission reduction , and power plant optimization.

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Parthivi College of Engineering & Management, C.S.V.T. University, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, India