2.2. Physico-chemical properties of VMW
The vegetable market waste collected from different sources
had high initial moisture content and needed drying for to reduce
moisture content suitable for briquetting. The material was spread
on sheet for open sun drying. The proximate analysis of the
powdered material was done in the biomass laboratory of the
institute to determine its moisture content, volatile matter, fixed
carbon and ash content as per ASTM method [51] and given in
Table 2. After drying moisture content reduced below 10% for all
four types of vegetable wastes. Ash content in cauliflower/cabbage
leaves found high as compared to other vegetablewastes. The dried
VMW was also analyzed for its chemical composition to find out
cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin content. The samples were
tested at Animal Nutrition Research Laboratory of the Anand
Agricultural University, Anand, (Gujarat). Generally lingo-cellulosic
material has the lignin content in the range of 20e30% [52], while
vegetable waste had lignin in the range 3.23e4.51%.