抄録
Bio-cokes, developed by Kinki University (domestic patent No. 4089933), can utilize unused biomass and be used as a coal-coke substitute in large-scale industrial processes such as foundry cupola furnaces. Bio-cokes are expected to serve as a technology corresponding to (1) reduction in the amount of the CO2 generation for the global warming prevention; and (2) rise of the price of coal coke. In preliminary tests conducted at Kinki University, it was confirmed that Bio-cokes could be manufactured from various raw materials such as used tea leaves, wood waste, etc. This paper reports our current effort to optimize manufacturing conditions of a mass-production facility of Bio-cokes. This study confirms the pressured solidification characteristics of biomass (using tea scum as the raw material) with varied parameters such as heat process temperature, smashed size, pressure, and initial water content. Thermal analysis of the material explains why the manufacturing process does not change material weight when setting the heat process temperature at 453K. The optimum pressure for effectively obtaining a high specific gravity is constantly around 20MPa in spite of different smashed material sizes. There is the optimum initial water content to achieve the highest specific gravity, which is very close to the value based on the true-density.
