Abstract
Traditionally, fossil carbon is the most commonly used reductant for metallurgical processes such as ferro-manganese and silicon. An important path to the goal of reducing the CO2 footprint of this industry is to replace fossil carbon sources with bio-based carbon sources. Since the structure of bio-carbon is substantially different from fossil carbon, characterizing the bio-carbon structure and examining its behavior during the relevant processes are important. Micro X-ray computed tomography (µCT) has been used to analyse and compare bio-carbon and fossil carbons' behaviour after exposure to reactive gases such as CO2. The investigated material is a composite mix of bio-carbon and fossil carbon. Since µCT is a non-destructive technique, the same grains of carbon have been scanned before and after exposure to the reactive gas. Image analysis reveals the structural changes before and after the reactivity test, and the difference in reactivity of the fossil and bio-carbon parts of the grain.