When the briquetting technology was first promoted to produce coal briquettes for home uses, asphalt was added as the binder: asphalt could create unpleasant smoke during the burning, so people started to look for the alternative binder to use in charcoal briquetting machine, in general there're 2 kinds of binders: Matrix binder and Film adhesive.
Matrix binder: it has strong adhesion and is used in the production of the briquette product that uses the raw material that has weak adhesion, the briquette product produced has the features of high density, high hardness and fine ware resistance, in one word, the characteristic of briquette is decided by the binder type.

Film adhesive: Coal tar and asphalt, they are frequently used in the production of coal briquette. With the high temperature and water or other solvent, film adhesives enhance the adhesion of the briquette. One advantage of it is the pressure of the briquetting process could be lowered, and there will be more holes structure in the briquettes. Asphalt is also used in the activated carbon production.