PERANCANGAN ALAT PENCETAK BRIKET SISTEM PNEUMATIK DAN PENGUJIANNYA

Abstract

The growing demand for energy has led to the exploration of renewable resources as alternatives to fossil fuels. Coconut shells, as a type of biomass, are highly potential to be processed into briquettes. This study focuses on designing and testing a pneumatic-based briquette press to produce briquettes that meet quality requirements. An experimental method was applied, consisting of tool design, fabrication, and performance testing. The results indicated that the single-acting pneumatic press was capable of producing 10 square briquettes per cycle with an average time of approximately one minute. The compressive strength ranged from 14.553 to 17.410 kN, which complies with Indonesian National Standard (SNI) and demonstrates good briquette density. Moisture content values were recorded between 2.4% and 7.7%, still below the maximum threshold of 8% based on SNI 01-6235-2000. Combustion tests showed that the briquettes could burn for up to 90 minutes with a peak temperature of around 120°C. The use of pneumatic technology provided faster production, more uniform shapes, and lower energy consumption compared to manual processes. Therefore, this machine has significant potential to promote environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative energy use.