Customised clean burning
Solid Biomass/Solid Fuel Systems

Welcome to Applied Silicate Technologies...

For many years, mining related industries (and more recently, those involved in biomass) have been troubled by the economics of how to turn particulate waste material into efficient, handleable and saleable end product.

When coal is mined, cleaned and transported, considerable quantities of fine coal (particles less than 5mm) are generated. This fine coal is often unsuitable for the end process and, even where the size is not a problem, retains large amounts of water (10%-30%) which can make it "sticky", difficult and inefficient to handle, transport and burn. A good example is the slurry ponds of waste coal dust which remain at mine sites after lump coal has been extracted and washed.

There are billions of tonnes of particulate waste around the world today, causing environmental problems and giving rise to significant ongoing costs to mining operators, product handlers and government agencies. Waste pile problems extend across many sectors of the natural resource industries with discarded heaps of various ore tailings spread across the world on many sites involved in the supply chain logistics. 

The most widely used solution for utilising large fine waste volumes (which cannot meet primary characteristics for utilisation without processing) to date has been “briqueting” and “pelletising.”  Typically, these projects face complex planning hurdles, display high capital costs, high manpower requirements and high ongoing energy input, in the form of heat and pressure, to turn fine particles into economically useful solids. The present high costs provide a severe economic barrier preventing extensive commercial processing of these waste streams.

The AST FuelForm® system, of which you are about to read, changes the economics of pelletising and briqueting fuels and biomass. The substantially lower overall costs of this unique system turns potential customers’ waste into high value raw materials and makes possible the commercial upgrading and blending of low rank, high moisture coals and biomass. The AST patented FuelForm® system marks a revolutionary rather than an evolutionary change for the industries concerned.