Bon Lester L.

Lamparero
Che 140 Chemical Process Industries

February 17, 2016

Roga Test
The Roga Index Test is a standardized test to measure the caking power of coal. Caking is a property of coals in
the bituminous group and is an essential property for coals which are required for coking. As a caking coal is
heated it passes through a region where it becomes very plastic, softens, swells and then re solidifies. The
residue is a cellular coke mass. Coals which do not cake are simply form a non-coherent or weakly coherent
char. In other words, Roga index is a test of a coals ability to agglutinate inert material.
A number of tests have been devised to classify the caking properties of coals including the Roga test as well as
the Free Swelling Index and Gray - King test. The free swelling index test entails heating a standard powder of
the coal in a crucible and comparing the resultant "button" with a standard profile, an index is given between 0
and 9. A non-coherent sample is given 0. Generally, 0 - 3 implies marginal caking behaviour. The Gray-King
index is essentially the same except the residue is compared with a number of previously made standard cakes.
Caking Index (G) is a modification of Roga test.
Designed by Roga, (ISO: 335:1974) the method is defined by carbonization of a mixture of 1 g of coal and 5 g of
standard anthracite. The coal sample is heated at 850C for 15 minutes. When all the volatiles have been
liberated, a small coke button remains. The latter is given the said name due to the heap that remains after
heating.
The crucible coke from this carbonization is submitted to a drum test and given a rating on the Roga index
based upon the mechanical strength of the crucible coke. The mechanical strength of the resulting coke button
is measured by an abrasion test in a special rotating drum. At the end of the tumbling period, the residue is
screened on a sieve with 1-millimetre round openings and the oversize weighed. The tumbling and screening
of the oversize is repeated two additional times. The index is calculated from the results ofthe screening test by
the following formula:

Roga Index=

100 a+d
+b+ c
3Q 2
Where:

Sources:

}
Q = total weight of residue after carbonization
a = weight of oversize before first screening
b = weight of oversize after first screening
c = weight of oversize after second screening
d = weight of oversize after third screening

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Eyrie.shef.ac.uk,. (2016). PROPERTIES OF COAL. Retrieved 17 February 2016, from
http://eyrie.shef.ac.uk/eee/cpe630/comfun4.html
International Organization for Standardization. (2011). Hard Coal - Determination of caking power Roga test. Retrieved December
9, 2011, from International Organization for Standardization:
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=4281
Thomas, L. (2012). Coal Geology (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.ph/books?
isbn=1118385721

Appendix. (2016) (1st ed., p. 162). British Columbia. Retrieved from

http://www.empr.gov.bc.ca/Mining/Geoscience/PublicationsCatalogue/Papers/Documents/Paper1986-03CoalinBC_3.pdf