TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INSTRUMENTATION AND TESTING - Preferred Components: The fresh hot biochar is press formed into blocks of biochar coke with relatively large surface areas by press forming in either a slow manner or by faster forging. The forming processes take place by either rolling action or by linear action such as forging or extrusion. The energy for the press forming is linked to the energy associated with the nearby pyrolysis plant generating steam, which is useful in engines producing the rotary and reciprocating movements needed for press forming rollers, reciprocating forging dies, extrusion rams and vibrating apparatus, which assist the release of biochar-coke blocks from the molds or dies. The steam generating pyrolysis plant has carbon dioxide neutral sources such as solar reflective power or biomass or crude bio-oil combustion. The fresh hot biochar to be delivered to the biochar-coke forming apparatus is portioned out in approximately equal sized portions prior to entry into the individual biochar-coke block forming mechanisms using containers on a rotary delivery system or conveyer belt. A leveling of excess biochar in conjunction with a mass measuring device gives approximately uniform mass for each block as determined by optimization for the type of press forming and dimensions and geometry of the biochar-coke blocks. The leveling of biomass is performed by the action of a canister-scoop and its lid. A movement of the canister and lid takes place along convergent rails through a conveying system removing hot biochar from a kiln that is useful as a part of production line. The lid has an inner surface. A traditional drop forging and counter-forging and simultaneous multidirectional forging techniques are adapted to the forging of biochar-coke blocks with complex grooved surface contours and or arrays of parallel holes in three dimensions. The techniques include forming parallel holes using slow press forming or faster forging dies that pass through the pressed biochar blocks in a unidirectional contact manner thus giving a smoother surface to the potentially friable biochar-coke block. A vibration of the press forming dies is accomplished through an eccentrically weighted rotary or reciprocating member producing small vibrations of the die, where the vibratory movement is activated after the unidirectional piercing or bidirectional forging of the biochar coke by the press forming die either by bringing into physical contact with the vibrating member and the die or by having a permanently fixed vibratory mechanism. The vibration takes place after the die pierces the biochar-coke, and the vibration is stopped before removal of the die from release biochar-coke. A cross section of the protrusion of array of elements of the press forming die is an elliptical, elliptoid or other regularly asymmetric cross section, where individual protrusions are rotated through a small angle to make a larger hole in the compacted biochar-coke than accomplished by the straight impingement of the die on the biochar-coke thus facilitating the release of the biochar-coke from the die and surrounding mold. The step of the formation of arrays of parallel holes in three dimensions is accomplished through the drop forging thus producing a highly porous yet mechanically strong block of biochar-coke in a single forging stroke. The roller or rollers with gear teeth form deep grooves on a surface of biochar coke. An arc angle and pitch of the gear tooth profile have broad angle to allow the smooth release of biochar-coke from the rollers, where the rollers are frequently cleaned by brushes between the hot biochar coke contacts. The cleaning step is applied to the use of linear movement press forming such as forging. The biomass is selected for low sulfur phosphorus and other undesirable elements in metallurgical coke, and the pyrolysis conditions are adjusted such that the biochar has sufficiently high carbon content thus assisting in the production of high quality metallurgical coke for the smelting of metals from their ores. The biochar is introduced into the coal grinding apparatus including grinding rollers, wire brushes and rotary sieves. A length of time and pressure and a spacing of the grinding rollers, wire brushes and rotary sieves are adjusted to produce a carbonaceous powder to directly substitute the coal used in pulverized coal injection technology. The pulverizing step is performed at either or ambient temperature with modified traditional coal pulverizing or at pyrolysis temperature to avoid the inefficiency of reheating for forging. The fine biochar powder is allowed to fall through a low oxygen space so that top layer of low density and high impurity ash is easily discarded from the biochar forging process. The biochar is mixed with crushed iron ore and optionally with crushed limestone to produce pellets of suitable size for introduction into the top of blast furnace. The mixture is moistened with water, pressed into pellets in a mold and then either dried in the mold or released from the mold for drying, where the drying is accomplished by waste heat from associated pyrolysis plants or other carbon dioxide neutral energy sources such as focused thermal solar energy.