PETCOKE

& Characteristics of Alternative Fuels

B. Tech. CT .-VI
ALTERNATE FUELS & RAW MATERIALS
[04CT606]
Unit-2 Alternate Fuels /Lecture No- 06A

Dr. S.K. Jha

AKS University Satna (HoD CT)
Petcoke is termed as, “the cheapest unit of energy” without
hurting the final product quality of cement.

One of the most widely used fuels in cement kilns worldwide

because the cost per unit of released energy during firing is,
usually, cheaper compared to coal and fuel oil.

Petcoke is a black, shiny solid presented as small granules or

“needles.” It is an oil refinery byproduct that results from the
thermal decomposition of heavy oils.

In the composition of petcoke we find mainly carbon, although it

can also show high levels of sulfur and heavy metals, such as
nickel and vanadium.
Hardgrove Grindability Index (HGI)
The domestic
production has been
around 13.5 to 14
MTPA(2018).

And demand is
around 27 MTPA.
Petroleum coke (petcoke) is the solid residue that remains after
extraction of all valuable liquid and gaseous components from crude oil.

The world production of petcoke grew by 50% from 1997 to 1998.

It reached 50 million tonnes in 1999 and was expected to reach100

million tonnes by 2010 (International Energy Agency [IEA], 2001).

Petcoke is a lowvolatile fuel whose volatile content range is typically 5 –

15 percent, depending on the coking process.

There are three processes of coking: delayed, fluid and flexicoking with
delayed coking producing over 90 percent of total production (IEA, 2001).
1. Delayed petcoke is the petcoke resulting from a
semicontinuous process of production called delayed
coking developed originally to minimize the production
of heavy liquid waste fuels through their thermal
cracking.

• A significant content of residual hydrocarbons.

• Volatile material content between 10% and 15%.
2. Fluidcoke is the petcoke resulting from a continuous fluidized-
bed coking oven specially developed for transforming coke so
that it can be used as a fuel.
This is actually the most appropriate process for processing raw
materials that show a high content of sulfur.

3. Flexicoke is the petcoke resulting from a continuous fluidized-

bed coking process through which most of the coke is turned
into gas to produce a low-heating value gaseous fuel that is
deployed at the refinery itself.
Among the three types of petcoke, flexicoke has the lowest
content of volatile materials – between 2.5% and 3.5%.
Petcoke is composed mainly of carbon and it also contains high
levels of sulphur and heavy metals such as vanadium and nickel.

The fixed carbon varies from 80 - 92 percent. Irrespective of the

coking process. Petcoke has higher calorific value than coal,
typically LHV of about 32.5-35 MJ/kg .

The use of petcoke as fuel presents several challenges due to its

high sulphur content, poor ignition and burnout characteristics
because of its low volatile content.

Low-volatile fuels are generally fired in an arch-type furnace to

induce ignition and ensure flame stability.
Petcoke is widely used in cement kilns worldwide.
However, owing to the challenges associated with its
burning.

It is not possible to fire 100% petcoke in the kiln and

precalciner in many existing cement kiln systems without
co-firing with a high-volatile fuel or special design
considerations.

New plants specifically designed to enable 100% petcoke

firing are coming on the market while the many classical
precalciners are retrofitted to enable petcoke firing.
One traditional solution to using petcoke is to grind the
coke to a much finer residue than standard coal, up to 0.5
– 1 percent retained on 90 μm.

The burning rate of an individual char particle depends

primarily on its particle size, the amount of oxygen
present in the local atmosphere and the local
temperature.
In precalciner application where temperature is lower than in
kilns, besides the particle size, considerable retention time is
required to complete the combustion.

In precalciners designed for coal firing where the gas retention

time is less than 3 s.

Often petcoke is introduced directly into the tertiary air where

oxygen is highest before mixing with kiln exhaust gases.

In some of new precalciner designs the gas retention time is

increased significantly to about 7 s by injecting petcoke in a long
loop duct before joining the main calciner.
One traditional solution to using petcoke is to grind the
coke to a much finer residue than standard coal, up to 0.5
– 1 percent retained on 90 μm.

The burning rate of an individual char particle depends

primarily on its particle size, the amount of oxygen
present in the local atmosphere and the local
temperature.
The sulphur content of petcoke is several times higher than that
of coal. It is therefore expected that combustion of petcoke will
lead to higher emissions of SO2.

Petcoke has low ash content which easily fuses in the cement
clinker.

Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) is by far the highest except in a type

of coke where iron oxide was highest.

Molten V2O5 is known to dissolve most refractory and metal

oxides.

Vanadium, if present in clinker, tends to be found in the alite,