Beehive Briquettes (Bio Briquette Technology)

A beehive briquette is a solid fuel made out of char obtained from the carbonization of biomass residues. It is used as a substitute for fuel wood or kerosene for cooking or space heating. The technology of making beehive briquettes involves partial carbonization of biomass wastes, mixing of char with binders followed by briquetting. For making the beehive shaped briquette from the char clay mixture, a special type of metallic mould is used which is shown in the picture below. The wastes biomass may be leaves, twigs, branches or any other types of forestry wastes and agricultural residues. This beehive also known as honeycomb, briquettes are far superior to any other shapes of briquettes. Only one briquette is used for a stove and it gives clean gaseous combustion like L.P.G. Apart from convenience, these are delightful to watch and suitable both for cooking and space heating. It is very easy to ignite and it does not produce much smoke in the kitchen expect during initial ignition. The briquette is cylindrical in shape and is 130 mm in diameter and 90 mm in height. It has 19 holes in its body and each hole is 13 mm in diameter. Because of this, it is called beehive briquette. As the beehive briquette is prepared from biomass char, it doesn’t produce smoke except during the time of ignition. A beehive briquette may be used for domestic cooking and space heating purposes. One briquette lasts for one to one and half hour and thus one briquette is enough for cooking a complete meal for a family of five people using it as a substitute for fuel wood.