Replacing fossil carbon with biocoal in iron foundries

In this project, fossil coal will be substituted with biochar during iron casting. The aim is to reduce the increase in carbon in the atmosphere and thereby obtain a reduced climate impact. Today, clean coal is used for mainly two reasons: partly as an alloying substance for the correct composition of the cast iron and partly as an additive in bentonite-bonded molding sand.

The idea is to stop mining fossil coal for these uses and instead use coal already circulating on the earth's surface and atmosphere. The result is that the net supply of carbon (and carbon dioxide) to the atmosphere ceases and that carbon that is already circulating in ecosystems is used more efficiently.

The state of knowledge on how to use biochar in these processes is very low. The work is therefore initially focused on suitable technical qualities of biochar and how they should be added to the melt in the best way. At the same time, it is investigated whether biochar changes the properties of molding sand. Parallel with this, substitution will be assessed environmentally, partly from a life cycle perspective and partly from an emission point of view.