Everything about Coke Fuel totally explained
Coke is a solid
carbonaceous material derived from
destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur
bituminous coal.
The volatile constituents of the
coal—including
water,
coal-gas, and
coal-tar—are driven off by baking in an airless oven at temperatures as high as 2,000 degrees Celsius. This fuses together the fixed carbon and residual ash. Most coke in modern facilities is produced in "by-product" coke ovens and the resultant coke is used as the main fuel in iron-making
blast furnaces. Today, the hydrocarbons are considered to be by-products of modern coke-making facilities (though they're usually captured and used to produce valuable products). Non by-product coke ovens burn hydrocarbon off-gases on site to provide the heat needed to drive the carbonization process.
Properties and usage
The
specific gravity of coke is typically around 0.77. It is highly
porous.
Since
smoke-producing constituents are driven off during the
coking of coal, coke forms a desirable fuel for
stoves and
furnaces in which conditions are not suitable for the complete burning of
bituminous coal itself. Coke may be burned with little or no smoke under combustion conditions which would result in a large amount of smoke if bituminous coal were the fuel.
Bituminous coal must meet a set of criteria for use as coking coal, determined by particular
coal assay techniques. These include moisture content, ash content,
sulfur content, volatile content,
tar, and
plasticity.
Coke is used as a
fuel and as a
reducing agent in
smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Coke from
coal is gray, hard, and porous.
Discovered by accident to have superior
heat shielding properties when combined with other materials, coke was one of the materials used in the heat shielding on
NASA's
Apollo program space vehicles. In its final form, this material was called
AVCOAT 5026-39. This material has been used most recently as the heat shielding on the
Mars Pathfinder vehicle. Although not used for modern day
space shuttles, NASA is utilizing coke and other materials for a new heat shield for its next generation space craft, named
Orion, which is due to be completed in
2014.
History
The use of coke as a fuel was pioneered in
17th century England in response to the ever-growing problem of
European
deforestation.
Wood was becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. Coal's fumes, particularly smoke and sulfur compounds, disqualified it from many applications, including
cooking and
iron smelting. In
1603, Sir
Henry Platt suggested that coal might be charred in a manner analogous to the way
charcoal is produced from
wood. This process wasn't put into practice until
1642, when coke was used for roasting
malt in
Derbyshire. Coal can't be used in brewing because its sulfurous fumes would impart a foul taste to the
beer. In
1709 Abraham Darby established a coke-fired
blast furnace to produce
cast iron. Coke's superior crushing strength allowed blast furnaces to become taller and larger. The ensuing availability of inexpensive
iron was one of the factors leading to the
Industrial Revolution.
Other processes
The solid residue remaining from refinement of
petroleum by the "
cracking" process is also a form of coke.
Petroleum coke has many uses besides being a fuel, such as the manufacture of
dry cells,
electrodes, etc. Gas works manufacturing
syngas also produce coke as an end product, called gas house coke.
Fluid coking is a process which converts heavy residual crude into lighter products such as
naphtha,
kerosene,
heating oil, and
hydrocarbon gases. The "fluid" term refers to the fact that coke particles are in a continuous system versus older batch-coking technology.
Gases produced
Coke may be used to make fuel gases. It appears that the names have different meanings in the
USA and the
UK so confusion is possible. The following are UK meanings:
These are useful gases but require careful handling because of the risk of
carbon monoxide poisoning.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Coke Fuel'.
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