CSIRO biocoke, and the wood feedstock used to produce it.

High grade metallurgical coke from waste stream biomass

CSIRO has developed a process to make a dense, high purity biocoke which is comparable in cost and quality with metallurgical grade petcoke.

• 11 May 2011 | Updated 14 October 2011

• Commercial opportunity
• Background
• The process
• Biocoke product
• Biopitch product

Commercial opportunity

CSIRO seeks a commercial partner who is willing to invest in further development and trialling of this product in an industrial setting.

Background

High quality, dense coke is used in a number of metal producing processes. Sources of quality fossil carbon (petroleum coke, anthracite and coal) are diminishing and alternative carbon supplies are increasingly in demand.

CSIRO has developed a process to produce two products from sustainable biomass:

• high quality, dense biocoke
• biopitch low in polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), suitable for use as a binder in anode production.

CSIRO's biocoke is much lower in impurities than petcokes and provides a reliable, renewable source which offers potential carbon credit benefits.

CSIRO biocoke can be used as a total or partial substitute for fossil carbon in metallurgical applications, and can be blended with CSIRO biopitch to produce a carbon product suitable for use in applications such as aluminium reduction anodes.

The process

Conventional pyrolysis produces a porous low density char. CSIRO has developed a process which converts biomass, such as bagasse or plantation thinnings, to produce a dense biocoke.

The process also produces high quality biopitch from the condensed oily volatiles captured during the pyrolysis process.

Products with tailored characteristics can be generated by adjusting the feed source and the process parameters.

Biocoke product

Biocoke produced by the CSIRO process.

The biocoke product can be tailored for a range of characteristics, depending on final application:

• density
• electrical resistance
• strength
• volatile content.
• carbon reactivity.

The product is low in impurities, especially metal ions (V, Ni) and sulphur. Analysis revealed levels of V and Ni of approximately 1 ppm, in comparison with 300-700 ppm in petroleum coke.

As a result, CSIRO biocoke is ideal for demanding applications such as aluminium reduction anodes, where impurities can cause more rapid consumption.

Biopitch product

Biopitch produced using the CSIRO process exhibits good binding characteristics:

• good wetting ability on carbon particles
• pore filling.

Because production temperatures are much lower than those used in the production of coal tar pitch, the biopitch produced contains very low levels of volatile organics (VOC's) and virtually no carcinogenic and environmentally toxic polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Learn more about the Minerals Down Under Flagship.