Designing the Sugar Cane Charcoal Extruder

Abstract

The Sugar Cane Charcoal Extruder compresses carbonized sugar cane into charcoal briquettes. that are environmentally-friendly and comparable to wood charcoal in burn performance, cost, and durability. Originally developed in the fall semester of 2004 in the MIT course 2.009, Product Engineering Processes, the extruder is designed for use in Haiti where wood charcoal constitutes up to a seventh of a family's expenditures. For a nation without a widespread electric grid such as Haiti, a locally manufacturable, affordable, and family-operated charcoal extruder is an effective method to introduce alternative energy into the economy. This thesis documents the past developments of the extruder and presents an improved design that is more portable, more robust, and less expensive to build than the original versions. The new design loads the bagasse and binder directly into the feedscrew and compresses the mixture using threads of decreasing pitch. Evaluations of design successes and failures are provided as well as recommendations for future development.