The use of coal as primary energy in Indonesia will continue to be carried out, although slowly it will experience a significant decline until 2050 by the mandate of the National Energy Policy and the General National Energy Plan; this is more or less due to the potential of national coal reserves of 38.84 Billion Tons. However, planning for green coal or clean coal must be the first step by providing added value for coal through downstream coal gasification methods where the pilot project will be held at PT Bukit Asam as a state-owned enterprise. Coal gasification will produce by-products in the form of char which allegedly still has energy potential. As an effort to recycle when that pilot project is going operation, this char is then used as raw material to make briquettes. In this preliminary research, using coal samples with seam variation from PT Bukit Asam and the gasification process produces some char. After char characterization result by proximate and ultimate analysis, it is found that char experiences an increase in Gross Calorific Value grades from 5,804 cal/gr to 6,183 cal/gr (seam A1), from 5,794 cal/gr to 6,281 cal/gr (seam A2), from 5,837 cal/gr to 6,320 cal/gr (seam B1) and from 5,898 cal/gr to 6,407 cal/gr (seam C) and a significant decrease in sulfur levels from 1.18% to 0.38% (seam A1), from 0,41% to 0.30% (seam A2), from 1.12% to 0.59% (seam B1) and from 1.19% to 0.69% (seam C) and also a significant decrease of inherent moisture from 16.10% to 12% (seam A1), from 15.10% to 11.40% (seam A2), from 17.6% to 10.30% (seam B1) and from 14.8% to 9.9% (seam C). This result makes char potentially a raw material for solid fuels that are environmentally friendly.

Cadangan batubara di Indonesia diperkirakan sekitar 26 miliar ton dan masih akan menjadi energi primer sampai dengan tahun 2050, hal ini membuat pemanfaatan batubara menjadi energi bersih menjadi pekerjaan yang mendesak. Salah satu pemanfaatan batubara tersebut adalah dengan gasifikasi batubara. Dari hasil gasifikasi batubara, didapatkan suatu produk samping yaitu char. Dalam karakterisasi char ini didapatkan bahwa char mengalami peningkatan nilai fixed carbon dan GCV serta penurunan kadar sulfur yang signifikan. Hal ini, menjadikan char berpotensi menjadi bahan baku bahan bakar padat yang ramah lingkungan (briket). Penambahan biomassa berupa arang tempurung kelapa diharapkan dapat meningkatkan nilai kalor dan memungkinkan terjadinya penyalaan dari suhu rendah yang kemudian bisa menghemat waktu dan energi yang dibutuhkan untuk penyulutan briket, serta mempertahankan laju pembakaran. Karena itu sebagai studi awal, diperlukan studi kepustakaan dari penelitian sebelumnya sebagai dasar hipotesa awal dari penambahan arang tempurung kelapa dalam pembuatan briket dengan bahan baku utama char hasil gasifikasi batubara

In accordance with the mandate of the Regulation of the Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources for the use of cleaner coal through coal gasification projects, in the future the coal gasification industry will produce char as a by-product. This study aims to characterize coal gasification char using a prototype underground coal gasification (UCG) and the addition of coconut shell charcoal biomass as a raw material for making biobriquettes. By using coal as raw material from the Muara Tiga Besar Mine of PT Bukit Asam, five kinds of coal samples from different layers were obtained, which from the characterization results, both coal and char, did not have too significant deviations so that the research variables could be ignored. The results of the characterization of char from coal gasification results compared to the initial sample of coal showed an increase in calorific value, a decrease in sulfur content and a significant decrease in water content, so it can be concluded that char from coal gasification has good potential as a raw material for biobriquettes. By using char and coconut shell charcoal with the ratio of variations in the composition of char and coconut shell compositions is 100%:0%; 75%:25%; 50%:50%; 25%:75% and 0%:100% carried out the briquetting process. The results of the biobriquette characterization met the criteria of the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) 01-6235-2000 and Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources regulation No. 047 of 2006