Biocarbon utilization in cokemaking by partial briquetting

Abstract

Biocarbon utilization in cokemaking is technically challenging because biocarbon is detrimental to resultant coke quality. This challenge limits the GHG footprint reduction that can be achieved while maintaining acceptable resultant coke quality for industrial blast furnace operation. To minimize the disadvantageous effects of biocarbon utilization, a novel approach of incorporating the biocarbon into cokemaking coal blend was developed. It involves densifying biocarbon with loose coal to form biobriquette, then integrating the biobriquette into the coal blend for cokemaking. A series of pilot scale carbonization was conducted in this work to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach. Experimental results revealed that the overall biocarbon materials content in the cokemaking coal blend can be increased to 10% in weight while maintaining the reasonable quality of the resultant biocoke. The biogenic carbon content of the resultant biocoke was analyzed by Carbon-14 dating. The GHG footprint of the produced biocoke was found reduced by 7.3%. It was further demonstrated that utilization of the highly reactive biocoke could enhance the fuel efficiency in the blast furnace and further reduce the GHG emissions during the blast furnace operation.