Multi-fuel biomass systems — crop residue, briquettes and pellets
A system that adapts to the fuel you actually have.
A multi-fuel biomass system turns crop residue into industrial process heat without tying the plant to a single supply chain. Groundnut shell, corn cob, cotton stalk, rice stalk and dried mango peel are fired as 90 × 90 mm briquettes rated 3,800 to 4,500 kcal/kg, on a burner of 200,000 to 900,000 kcal/h.
Fuel availability is seasonal and regional. A system engineered around a single fuel is a system that stops when that fuel runs short. Ours accommodate a range of crop residues, so the operation adapts to what is available rather than what was available at specification stage.
Indicative price, Ex-Works (EXW): USD 1,260–56,855
Shipping, customs clearance and local duties are extra. The final price depends on the configuration and is fixed in the written quotation.
Validated fuel types
Briquetted at 90 × 90 mm:
| Fuel | Calorific value | Density | Moisture | Ash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Groundnut shell | 4,500 kcal/kg | 1.2 g/cm³ | < 8% | < 4% |
| Dried mango peel | 4,200 kcal/kg | 1.2 g/cm³ | < 10% | < 4% |
| Corn cob | 4,100 kcal/kg | 1.3 g/cm³ | < 10% | < 3% |
| Cotton stalk | 3,900 kcal/kg | 1.1 g/cm³ | < 12% | < 5% |
| Rice stalk | 3,800 kcal/kg | 1.1 g/cm³ | < 12% | < 6% |
Also accommodated: wood chip and bark, sugarcane bagasse, palm kernel shell, coconut shell, wheat straw and other cellulosic residues, subject to assessment.
Briquette production line
Where residue is available loose but not briquetted, we supply the preparation line:
- Shredding — 500 kg/hour, reducing raw residue to feedstock size.
- Moisture control — pre-drying to the window required for stable briquette formation.
- Material sorting — removal of soil, stone and foreign matter that would raise ash or damage the press.
- Compression & forming — densification to 1.1–1.3 g/cm³.
- Curing & storage — stabilisation and covered storage handling.
Fuel-specific engineering
- Feed mechanism — matched to the bulk density and flow of the intended fuel.
- Combustion chamber geometry — optimised for the ash content and burn rate of the fuel profile.
- Ash handling — sized to ash percentage. Rice stalk at 6% needs materially more frequent removal than corn cob at 3%.
- Emissions control — appropriate to fuel and to local regulatory requirement.
Regional fuel profiles
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| West Africa | Cashew shell, mango peel, rice husk & stalk, groundnut shell, cotton stalk |
| East Africa | Coffee husk & parchment, maize cob & stalk, forest residue |
| North Africa | Olive pomace, date-palm residue, cereal straw |
| Southern Africa | Sugarcane bagasse, maize residue, timber offcut |
Where this equipment is used
The same equipment is specified across several product classes. These are the ones it is configured for most often:
livestock feed drying, fruit and vegetable drying and tree nut and oilseed drying.
Each of those pages carries the drying parameters, cycle times and quality targets for that product class.
One system has been commissioned so far: a 900,000 kcal/h cashew shell burner firing a steam boiler at Premium Cashew Commodities Limited in The Gambia, on the factory’s own empty shell. It is a boiler application — no drying line has been built anywhere yet, so every drying figure on this site remains an engineered design target. The configuration is published in full, and the measured performance deliberately is not, on the page for the PCCL installation in The Gambia.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make my own briquettes from my residue?
Yes. A briquette line mills, dries and densifies residue into 90 × 90 mm briquettes. It is sized alongside the burner, because the residue volume you actually have determines how much of your fuel you cover yourself and how much you buy in.
What residue volume do I need to be self-sufficient in fuel?
It depends on the calorific value of the residue — 3,800 kcal/kg for rice stalk up to 4,500 for groundnut shell — and on your line’s heat demand. The calculation starts from the tonnage you dry, not from the residue pile, and we run it at the sizing stage.
What happens if my residue supply is seasonal?
That is the normal case, and it is why the burner is multi-fuel. It moves between 90 × 90 mm briquettes, commercial 6–8 mm pellets and loose cashew shell without mechanical change; only feed rate, ash volume and cleaning interval shift. Size against the fuel you can get for most of the year, and treat the others as the ones that cover its gaps.
Discuss your fuel availability
Tell us what residue your region and operation produce across the year, and we’ll engineer around it.
Discuss your fuel