Petroleum coke is a carbonaceous byproduct of crude oil refining that provides important value in several industrial processes including energy generation, metal smelting, and production of advanced materials. However, its production and usage have a significant environmental impact. In order to address this issue, the industry must strive to find a way to optimize its use while also pursuing sustainability goals.
In the steel industry, petroleum coke is an essential fuel for the iron ore smelting furnaces. It is a highly combustible material that provides a low-sulphur and low-ash fuel for the melting process. In addition, coke is used as an additive to improve permeability of the blast furnace slag and to make the slag more refractory.
It is produced from low-ash and low-sulphur bituminous coal by heating in the absence of air through a process known as coking. It can also be obtained from the destructive distillation of petroleum in petroleum refineries. The unqualified term “coke” commonly refers to the product derived from this process, which is generally called fuel coke and more formally as petroleum coke or petcoke.
Coke is a hard, porous solid with high carbon content. It is a byproduct of oil refining and may be used as a substitute for coal in steel furnaces. It is a key raw material in the manufacture of graphite electrodes and anodes for silicon and other industries requiring electrical conductivity and thermal shock resistance. Coke is also a source of heat for reducing iron ore in a Bessemer converter.
There are two main types of petroleum coke: green coke and calcined petroleum coke. The primary difference between these two products is the degree to which they have been refined and processed. Green coke is a raw material that must undergo a process called calcination in order to improve its properties for industrial applications. This process removes the volatile components that are found in raw coke and produces a higher quality material known as calcined petroleum coke.
During the calcination process, coke is heated to temperatures of over 1,200°C. This transforms the coke into a hard, brittle material with a low sulfur content and a high fixed carbon content. It is then used in a variety of industrial applications, including as a fuel for power plants and cement kilns. Moreover, it is also used in high-temperature applications, such as for producing anodes and carbon brushes.
It is reported that a mixture of metallurgical coke and industrial coal, with varying particle size distributions of the metallurgical coke, demonstrates an improved fluidity at the melter gasifier when compared to a conventional blend made solely from industrial coal. This is due to an increased number of cracks and pores in the metallurgical coke. This is an important factor affecting its reactivity towards CO2. The improved fluidity of the metallurgical coke allows it to be better incorporated into the slag mixtures of COREX reduction and electric arc furnaces, thus allowing for the production of direct reduced iron with a high carbon content (up to 6.0%).
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