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Production of coke from lignites was studied in continuation of a previous study that demonstrated effectiveness of a sequence of hot briquetting and carbonization on preparation of high strength coke from a lignite. Cokes were prepared from four Indonesian lignites with or without pretreatments such as hydrothermal treatment (HT) at 200−300 °C, acid washing (AW), and a combination of them (HT−AW). The hot briquetting of the raw lignites at temperature and mechanical pressure of 200 °C and 128 MPa, respectively, enabled cokes to be produced with a tensile strength (TS) of 7−22 MPa. The pretreatments, AW and HT at 200 °C (HT200), increased TSs of resulting cokes to 18−24 and 13−36 MPa, respectively. A sequence of HT200 and AW further increased TSs of cokes to 27−40 MPa. AW and HT200 modified the macromolecular structure of the lignites by different mechanisms. AW removed alkali and alkaline earth metallic species that played roles of cross-links in the macromolecular network, while HT200 rearranged macromolecules physically. Both HT and AW enhanced plasticization and then deformation/coalescence of lignite particles during the briquetting, which formed high strength briquettes. There were strong correlations between TS of coke and that of briquette and also between TS and bulk density of coke from the individual lignites.

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The steelmaking industry requires coke as a reducing agent, as an energy source, and for its ability to hold slag in a blast furnace. Coking coal as raw coke material is very limited. Studying the use of biomass as a mixture of coking coal in the synthesis of biocoke is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas coal emissions. This research focuses on biomass and heating temperature through the coal blending method to produce biocoke with optimal mechanical properties for the blast-furnace standard. The heating temperature of biomass to biochar was evaluated at 400, 500, and 600 °C. The blending of coking coal with biochar was in the compositions of 95:5, 85:15, and 75:25 wt.%. A compacting force of 20 MPa was employed to produce biocoke that was 50 mm in diameter and 27 mm thick using a hot cylinder dye. The green sample was heated at 1100 °C for 4 h, followed by quenching with a water medium, resulting in dense samples. Increasing heating temperature is generally directly proportional to an increase in fixed carbon and calorific value. Biocoke that meets several blast-furnace criteria is a coal mixture with coconut-shell charcoal of 85:15 wt.%. Carbonization at 500 °C, yielding fixed carbon, calorific value, and compressive strength, was achieved at 89.02 ± 0.11%; 29.681 ± 0.46 MJ/kg, and 6.53 ± 0.4 MPa, respectively. This product meets several criteria for blast-furnace applications, with CRI 29.8 and CSR 55.1.

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Painan coals of West Sumatra were selected as semi-anthracitic coal sample for studying the physicochemical properties such as measurement, evaluation and description of the changes of surface characteristic of coal sample and their oxidation in the atmospheric air at a temperature ranging from 105 to 400°C for 30 min. Several methods are adopted to analyze and discuss several phenomena of the oxidized Painan coal surface during oxidation process for the change in the physicochemical properties as determined by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), contact angle, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermogravimetric and Differential Thermal Analysis (TG-DTA) analyses as well as other supporting analytical equipment. AFM analyses revealed some changes in adhesion force and surface morphology with more adhesion force available between 0.6 and 8.6 nN on polished coal surfaces due to the increased oxidation temperature. The study revealed that the extent of hydrophobicity of coal surface decreased with the increased of oxidation temperature expressed as contact angles at about 80°and 20°. Another phenomenon occurred during the experiment was hydrophilicity index of coal surface increase at approximately 1.3 and 2.9. Oxidation of coal that occurred with increased temperature also indicated an increase in oxygen content from 3.8% to 22.9 wt%. Increased oxygen functional group also noted that oxidation of coal took place during the treatment. We also found that oxidation treatment also affected the combustion properties of coal: decreasing ignition temperature between 452.9 and 317.6, lowering the reactivity of coal at maximum combustion rate temperature, and reflecting their char characteristics as burnt out, ranging from 652.3 to 648.5°C.

Dolomite calcination is one of process steps to prepare calcined dolomite for raw materials in magnesium production. Calcination of dolomite involves heating the raw material at sufficient temperature in order to release the carbon dioxide from its carbonate minerals. This process is commonly conducted in a rotary kiln. There have been a number of calcination studies in a laboratory scale, but the study of dolomite calcination in a larger scale is very scarce. This research is aimed to study the performance of dolomite calcination in a bench-scale rotary kiln with 500 gram of feed. The effect of various parameters, including temperatures, feed rate, rotating frequency, and particle size were examined. The temperature of rotary kiln was varied between 700 and 1000 °C, while the particle size of dolomite was varied between 0.149 – 0.297 mm and up to 10 – 15 mm. The temperature distribution inside the rotary kiln was also measured. It is obtained that a conversion of 92% was attained at operation temperature of 1000 °C, which is at a higher temperature compared to the laboratory scale, where a conversion of 100% was obtained at 900 °C. This imply that the effect of heat transfer also plays important role in the calcination of dolomite especially at a larger scale.