article · Heliyon
Coal mining and processing operations generate millions of tons of coal fines that are typically treated as waste despite their energy and metallurgical value. While converting these fines into briquettes offers a solution, commercialisation has been limited by high binder expenses and weak mechanical strength. This research investigates the densification of coal fines combined with pretreated biomass using widely available organic binders under a two-ton load. When cured in an inert atmosphere, composite briquettes formed using a combined pitch-molasses binder demonstrated superior physical properties and mechanical integrity compared to those using individual binders. The resulting briquettes achieved a density of 1.18 to 1.32 grams per cubic centimetre, exceptional drop and impact resistance, a 99 percent water resistance index, and a cold crushing strength of 9 megapascals, whilst slightly improving calorific value relative to raw coal fines.
Millions of tons of coal fines are discarded as industrial waste each year. Transforming these fine particles into mechanically robust composite fuel using pretreated biomass and accessible organic binders offers a way to reclaim discarded energy resources. This approach supports industrial resource efficiency by providing solid alternative feedstocks suitable for high-demand thermal systems and metallurgical processes.
Targeted at operators in iron-making, specifically rotary kiln direct reduced iron and COREX facilities, as well as thermal energy plants, this applied research shows that pitch-molasses composite briquettes satisfy industrial performance benchmarks. The work represents an applied and tested formulation developed under a two-ton load. Real-world commercialisation will require scaling production from these initial batch tests to continuous industrial briquetting equipment.
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Coal processing industries generate millions of tons of fines (<3 mm) during mining operation and are often considered as wastes. These wastes have enormous potential in serving as energy and metallurgical operation feedstock. One avenue for its use is densification into briquettes or pelletizes. Various briquetting techniques have been adopted in the past few decades; however, the main issues upfront in commercializing these techniques are significant binder cost and poor mechanical integrity. Therefore, the present study concentrates on utilizing commonly available organic binder along with pretreated biomass in developing coal fine briquettes. Briquettes were produced after initial pretreatment of the raw materials under a load of 2 tons. Briquettes were cured in an inert environment and eventually characterized for its main litmus requirements (physical properties). It was observed that pitch-molasses bonded briquettes have better physical properties leading to good mechanical integrity than briquettes produced from individual binder. The proximate, ultimate and calorific value analyses of the briquettes do not deteriorate but mildly improved compared to the raw coal fines. With a density of 1.18–1.32 g/cm3, drop to fracture that is greater than 100 (times/2 m), impact resistance index well above 6000, water resistance index of 99% and cold crushing strength of 9 MPa, pitch-molasses bonded briquettes clearly surpassed recommended physical properties benchmarked for briquettes of industrial and domestic end use. The physical properties of the briquettes favorably meet requirements as feedstock for rotary kiln direct reduced iron and COREX iron-making processes as well as fuel for thermal operations.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02160
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