Carbonization

Dr. Tazien Rashid

History
 During the 1880's, coke began to replace charcoal in the making
of steel at foundries in the United States.
 By the end of World War I, 88 percent of the nation's iron and
steel was produced by using a process utilizing coke.
 At a typical foundry of the era, coke and iron ore would be mixed
together, and then burned in a furnace.
 As the coke burned, it would remove the oxygen from the iron
ore, converting it to metal.
Definition
 Carbonization is the process by which coal is
heated and volatile products gaseous and
liquid are driven off, leaving a solid reside
called char or coke.
 Heating of coal in the absence of air to
produce coke in called carbonization.
 Carbonization is the term for the conversion
of an organic substance into carbon or a
carbon-containing residue through pyrolysis
or destructive distillation.
Types of Carbonization
 Low temperature carbonization
 High temperature carbonization
Low temperature carbonization
 Low-temperature carbonization (450-7000C) was originally
developed to provide town gas for residential and street lighting
and to manufacture a smokeless fuel for domestic and industrial
heating.
 It produces semi coke which is used as a smokeless domestic
fuel. It can some times be used in boilers also to avoid smoke.
 The by-product tars were economically important and were often
essential feedstocks for the chemical industry or were refined to
gasoline, heating oils, and lubricants.
 Low-temperature carbonization evolved and was used
extensively in industrialized European countries but was
eventually reduced after 1945 as oil and natural gas became
widely available. Again started in 1990.
 Low-temperature carbonization was once practiced widely to
produce a coke suitable for residential heating, but residential
furnaces are now fired almost exclusively by oil and natural gas.
High Temperature Carbonization
 High-temperature carbonization, coal is heated to
temperatures of 900° to 1,200° C (1,600° to
2,200° F).
 At these temperatures, practically all the volatile
matter is driven off as gases or liquids, leaving
behind a residue that consists principally of
carbon with minor amounts of hydrogen, nitrogen,
sulfur, and oxygen (which together constitute the
fixed-carbon content of the coal).
 Carbonization reactions can be illustrated in the
following simplified manner:
 Cont…

CH 0.8 S0.2O0.1 N 0.01 (Coal Molecule) + Heat  CH 4 .H 2 .CO (Coke oven gas) + H 2O  NH 3  Tars & Light Oil + C (Carbon )
High Temperature Carbonization

 The main purpose of high-temperature

carbonization is the production of metallurgical coke
for use in blast furnaces and foundries.
 Some coke is used for the manufacture of calcium
carbide and electrode carbons, and in foundries to
produce cast iron; however, more than 90% of the
coke produced is used in blast furnaces to smelt
iron ore and produce iron, and modern coke-making
practices are virtually dictated by the coke quality in
this market.
 High-temperature carbonization, with which this
section is concerned, is practiced to produce a coke
having the requisite properties for metallurgical use,
as in blast furnaces or foundry.
Coke Production
 The coke making process involves
carbonization of coal to high temperatures
(1100°C) in an oxygen deficient atmosphere
in order to concentrate the carbon. The
commercial coke making process can be
broken down into two categories:
 Byproduct Coke making
 Non-Recovery/Heat Recovery Coke making
 By Product Coke Making
The entire coke making operation is comprised of the
following steps:
 The selected coals from specific mines are blended,
pulverized, and oiled for proper bulk density control.
 The blended coal is charged into a number of slot type
ovens where in each oven shares a common heating flue
with the adjacent oven.
 Coal is carbonized in a reducing atmosphere and the off-
gas is collected and sent to the by-product plant where
various by-products are recovered.
 Hence, this process is called by-product coke making.
Bulk density is a property of powders, granules and other "divided" solids, especially used
in reference to soil. It is defined as the mass of many particles of the material divided by the
total volume they occupy. The total volume includes particle volume, inter-particle void
volume and internal pore volume.
25-80 mm

10-25 mm

10 mm
Cont…
Non-Recovery/Heat Recovery
Coke making
 The coal is carbonized in large oven chambers.
 Primary air for combustion is introduced into the oven chamber
through several ports located above the charge level in both
pusher and coke side doors of the oven.
 Partially combusted gases exit the top chamber through "down
comer", thereby heating the sole of the oven.
 Combusted gases collect in a common tunnel and exit via a
stack which creates a natural draft in the oven.
 Since the by-products are not recovered, the process is called
Non-Recovery coke making.
 In one case, the waste gas exits into a waste heat recovery
boiler which converts the excess heat into steam for power
generation; hence, the process is called Heat Recovery coke
making.
Properties of coke
Ash & moisture content
 Low moisture and ash content are desirable
in coke.
 Low moisture in coke can be achieved by
suitable control of the water supply during
quenching.
 Coke should contain <1.5% moisture.
 Maximum desirable ash content in coke is
8%.
Cont…
 Hardness & Strength
 It is defined as the resistance power of material to
breakage by impact
 Strength of coke is measured by Shatter Index and
hardness is measured by Cochrane Index.
 Shatter Index
 It measure the resistance of coke to breakage by
impact.
 Cochrane Index.
 It is the measure of hardness of the coke and gives
the resistance of coke to breakage by attrition,
rubbing.
Summary
Stage I
 Primary break down of coal yields decomposition product like
H2O, CO, CO2, H2S, aromatics paraffin's, olefins, nitrogen
containing compounds etc.
Stage II
 Secondary thermal reaction among these librated primary
products as they pass through hot coke, along hot oven walls
and through highly heated free space.
Stage III
 Progressive removal of hydrogen from residue in the oven to
produce hard coke.
Uses
 Coke is used as a fuel and as a reducing
agent in smelting iron ore in a blast furnace.