Formation Characteristics of Bio-Coke Produced From Waste Agricultural Biomass

Abstract

We aimed to effectively use unutilized rice straw by producing Bio-coke, which is a new briquette (in the rest of this document referred to as the BIC) with high density and hardness, from rice straw with various conditions based on initial water content and processing temperature and evaluated characteristics of rice straw BIC. First of all, the apparent density of BIC was calculated from its weight and volume, and the cold compressive strength for each BIC was measured. From the results, it showed that the relationship between apparent density and maximum compressive strength derived from the compression test had a positive correlation. Furthermore, the hot compressive strength of the BIC produced with 5% initial water content and 453K processing temperature was measured. The rice straw BIC had a maximum compressive strength of 4.8MPa at a high temperature of 973K. This hot maximum compressive strength is equal to about one third of the hot maximum compressive strength of coal coke, which is 12MPa. Also, it was determined that the maximum compressive strength of rice straw BIC is highest on both cold and hot compression tests, and BIC produced from agricultural biomass like rice straw and rice husk had higher maximum compressive strength at room and high temperatures than BIC produced from other materials. Thus, it seemed that fiber and silica contained in agricultural biomass helps maintain of structure of BIC.