Fuel Characteristics of Briquettes Manufactured by Natural Stacking Bamboo/Chinese Fir Mixtures

[Image: see text] Bamboo wastes were naturally stacked for 1 month and were uniformly mixed with Chinese fir. Briquettes were manufactured by a briquette extruder at different process temperatures and mixing ratios. The physical, mechanical, pyrolysis, and combustion characteristics of briquettes were determined. The results showed that the mixing ratios and process temperature had a significant impact on the fuel properties of briquettes. The optimum briquettes were manufactured by 70% bamboo/30% Chinese fir blends at a process temperature of 520 °C. The fuel properties of optimum briquettes met the standard requirement of LY/T 2552-2015 and GB/T 28669-2012. The lower heating rate at the primary pyrolysis stage increased the yield of charcoal during the carbonization process of briquettes. The combustion process of briquettes added a char combustion stage, compared with the pyrolysis process. There were no synergistic interactions of bamboo and Chinese fir during pyrolysis and combustion process. The results of this research are helpful to develop large-scale production of bamboo briquettes or charcoal.