Victorian brown coal as a source of industrial carbons: a review

Abstract The development of the Victorian brown coal carbonization industry is reviewed and advances in both char and activated carbon production are outlined. Whilst hard lump char has been successfully produced on a commercial scale since 1970, the production of hard activated carbons from Victorian brown coal has been hindered by the inherent friability of the brown coal feedstock, so that the introduction of porosity during activation has often been at the expense of carbon attrition resistance. Alkali digestion of the brown coal feedstock prior to carbonization has been used to overcome this problem.