CALCINED PETROLEUM COKE

COKE

Coke is a fuel with few impurities and a high carbon content, usually made from coal. It is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulphur bituminous coal. Cokes made from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is synthetic. The form known as petroleum coke, or pet coke, is derived from oil refinery coker units or other cracking processes.

Coke is used in preparation of producer gas which is a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen (N2). Producer gas is produced by passing air over red-hot coke. Coke is also used to manufacture water gas.

PETROLIUM COKE

Petroleum coke (often abbreviated pet coke or petcoke) is a carbonaceous solid delivered from oil refinery coker units or other cracking processes. Coking processes that can be employed for making petcoke include contact coking, fluid coking, flexicoking and delayed coking. Other coke has traditionally been delivered from coal.

This coke can either be fuel grade (high in sulfur and metals) or anode grade (low in sulfur and metals). The raw coke directly out of the coker is often referred to as green coke In this context, “green” means unprocessed. The further processing of green coke by calcining in a rotary kiln removes residual volatile hydrocarbons from the coke. The calcined petroleum coke can be further processed in an anode baking oven in order to produce anode coke of the desired shape and physical properties. The anodes are mainly used in the aluminium and steel industry.

CLASSIFICATION

The Petroleum Coke category consists of two substances; green coke and calcined coke. These two substances are grouped together in a category based on their similarity of manufacturing processes which results in similar physical chemical characteristics and chemical composition. The principal difference is the amount of residual hydrocarbon (also termed volatile matter) in the two products. Petroleum coke (both green and calcined) is a black-colored solid produced by the high pressure thermal decomposition of heavy (high boiling) petroleum process streams and residues.

Green coke is the initial product from the cracking and carbonization of the feedstocks to produce a substance with a high carbon-to-hydrogen ratio. Green coke undergoes additional thermal processing to produce calcined coke. The additional processing removes volatile matter and increases the percentage of elemental carbon, which results in a lower potential for toxicity for calcined coke.

The green coke must have sufficiently low metals content in order to be used as anode material. Green coke with this low metals content is referred to as anode grade coke. The green coke with too high metals content will not be calcined and is used for burning. This green coke is called fuel grade coke

Petcoke is over 90 percent carbon and emits 5 to 10 percent more carbon dioxide (CO2) than coal on a per-unit-of-energy basis when it is burned. As petcoke has a higher energy content, petcoke emits between 30 and 80 percent more CO2 than coal per unit of weight. The difference between coal and coke in CO2 production per unit energy produced depends upon the moisture in the coal (increases the CO2 per unit energy — heat of combustion) and volatile hydrocarbon in coal and coke (decrease the CO2 per unit energy).