PURPOSE: To prepare fuel coal which is dense, has a high initial strength and a thermal efficiency equal to that of lump coke and can be brought to a high temp. quickly, by mixing specified dust coke with blast furnace slag in powder and forming the mixt. into shape by press molding.

CONSTITUTION: 100pts.wt. dust coke having a particle diameter of 8mm or smaller, of which moisture content and distribution of particles of 3mm in diameter have been determined beforehand, and 20W100pts.wt. dust coal are fed from receiving hoppers 1, 1' on belt feeders 2, 2' and moisture content is adjusted to 6W 12wt% on a shaking sieve 3. Particles on and under the sieve are crushed in a roll crusher 5 and, after particle size adjustment in such a way that particles smaller than 3mm in diameter may account for 80wt% or higher, the crushed coal is temporarily stored in a sub-hopper 4 for intermittent supply to a mixer 6 in predetermined amts. 10W40pts.wt. blast furnace slag in powder (c) and 0.8W 4wt% binder (d) are fed into the mixer through a hopper 7, a feeder 8 and a weighter 10 and the mixt. (e) is pressed into shape continuously in a double- roll press 11 to produce formed fuel coal. The formed fuel coal is carried on a net conveyor 12 for storage in a bin 13.