Petroleum coke, abbreviated coke
or petcoke, is a final carbon-rich solid material that derives from
oil refining, and is one type of the group of fuels referred to as
cokes. Petcoke is the coke that, in particular, derives from a
final cracking process—a thermo-based chemical engineering process
that splits long chain hydrocarbons of petroleum into shorter
chains—that takes place in units termed coker units. (Other types
of coke are derived from coal.) Stated succinctly, coke is the
"carbonization product of high-boiling hydrocarbon fractions
obtained in petroleum processing (heavy residues)." Petcoke is also
produced in the production of synthetic crude oil (syncrude) from
bitumen extracted from Canadas oil sands and from Venezuela\'s
Orinoco oil sands. In petroleum coker units, residual oils from
other distillation processes used in petroleum refining are treated
at a high temperature and pressure leaving the petcoke after
driving off gases and volatiles, and separating off remaining light
and heavy oils. These processes are termed "coking processes", and
most typically employ chemical engineering plant operations for the
specific process of delayed coking. 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 to
produce anode coke of the desired shape and physical properties.
The anodes are mainly used in the aluminium and steel industry.
Petcoke is over *0% carbon and emits 5% to *0% 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 *0 and
*0 percent more CO2 than coal per unit of weight. The difference
between coal and coke in CO2 production per unit of energy produced
depends upon the moisture in the coal, which increases the CO2 per
unit of energy heat of combustion and on the volatile hydrocarbons
in coal and coke, which decrease the CO2 per unit of energy.,
Petroleum coke, abbreviated coke or petcoke, is a final carbon-rich
solid material that derives from oil refining, and is one type of
the group of fuels referred to as cokes. Petcoke is the coke that,
in particular, derives from a final cracking process—a thermo-based
chemical engineering process that splits long chain hydrocarbons of
petroleum into shorter chains—that takes place in units termed
coker units. (Other types of coke are derived from coal.) Stated
succinctly, coke is the "carbonization product of high-boiling
hydrocarbon fractions obtained in petroleum processing (heavy
residues)". Petcoke is also produced in the production of synthetic
crude oil (syncrude) from bitumen extracted from Canadas oil sands
and from Venezuela\'s Orinoco oil sands. In petroleum coker units,
residual oils from other distillation processes used in petroleum
refining are treated at a high temperature and pressure leaving the
petcoke after driving off gases and volatiles, and separating off
remaining light and heavy oils. These processes are termed "coking
processes", and most typically employ chemical engineering plant
operations for the specific process of delayed coking. This coke
can either be fuel grade (high in sulfur and metals) or anode grade
(low in sulfur and metals).
