Desertification and deforestation are great problems facing developing nations. Adequate means of disposing wastes are also lacking, hence, converting them to other useful products such as briquettes for domestic fuel is desirable. The purpose of this work is to study some properties of briquettes made from groundnut shell and waste paper admixture with a view of addressing handling, transportation, and storage problems which is associated with biomass when used as fuels. Briquettes were manufactured using a motorized briquetting machine using five groundnut shells, waste paper mixing ratios (by weight), ie, 10: 90; 20: 80; 30: 70; 40: 60; and 50: 50. Obtained results showed that briquette produced using 10: 90 waste groundnut shell-waste paper ratios exhibited the largest (though minimal) linear expansion on drying. While the compressed (maximum) density of the briquettes ranged between 627.59 kg/m3 and 878.10 kg/m3. For the relax density ranged from 281.43 kg/m3 and 499.38 kg/m3, there was little variation in the relax ratio of 2.22 or 2.23. The durability rating of the briquettes ranged in 55 and 91%. It was concluded that stable briquettes could be formed from waste paper mixed with groundnut shell of up to 20% groundnut shell admixture. doi: DOI: 10.5829/idosi. ijee. 2015.06. 01.07

Biomass in form of agricultural waste can play a significant role in alternative energy generation and utilisation. Briquetting of agro-residues can alleviate some of the problems of energy shortage being encountered world-wide. By general definition biomass is the organic matter in trees, agricultural crops, living organisms, human, plants materials and organic compounds used to produce heat or to generate electricity. In a simpler term biomass is a plant materials and animal waste used as fuel or to generate electricity eg groundnut shell, coconut shell, rice husk, corn cob etc.