In this work, loose biomass briquettes were produced using cow dung and cactus binders at various compaction pressures of 6 MPa, 12 MPa and 19 MPa. Comparison is made of the briquettes produced using these binders with respect to their final bulk densities, moisture content, energy content and combustion behaviour. Yellow thatching grass, groundnut shells, sugar cane leaves, mopani leaves and combinations recipe were used for briquetting. The objective was to identify a natural binder, which produces the best quality loose biomass briquettes. Performance of the briquettes was also compared based on density, moisture content and combustion behaviour. Results shows alternating improvements from the lower compaction to the higher compaction pressures with respect to bulk densities especially on cow dung binds briquettes. The highest density were found to be 0.446  kg/m³ for ground nut shells and the lowest to be 0.236  kg/m³ for yellow thatching grass, the highest moisture content were found at yellow thatching grass with 68 % and lowest at combined recipe with 45%, the highest energy content were found at ground nut shell with 21.53 MJ/kg and lowest at 12.6 MJ/kg on yellow thatching grass and the highest combustion rate found at ground nut shell with 209.6 g/min and the lowest at yellow thatching grass at 34.63 g/min. Cactus briquettes were found to be insensitive to compaction pressure while pressure was found to be a critical parameter in producing quality briquettes when using cow dung binder. Cactus bonded briquettes achieved the highest bulk density of 0.375 kg/m³ on combination recipe and a maximum energy content of 16.49 MJ/kg.

Index terms - Biomass briquettes, calorific values, emissions and energy content