Raw coke

Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is human-made.

History[link]

Historic coke burning.

The Chinese first used coke for heating and cooking no later than the ninth century CE. By the first decades of the eleventh century, Chinese ironworkers in the Yellow River valley began to fuel their furnaces with coke, solving their fuel problem in that tree-sparse region.^[1]

In 1603, Hugh Plat suggested that coal might be charred in a manner analogous to the way charcoal is produced from wood. This process was not put into practice until 1642, when coke was used for roasting malt in Derbyshire.^[2] Coal cannot be used in brewing because its sulfurous fumes would impart a foul taste to the beer.

In 1709, Abraham Darby I 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.

In England in the first years of steam railway locomotives, coke was the normal fuel. This resulted from an early piece of environmental legislation; any proposed locomotive had to "consume its own smoke".^[3] This was not technically possible to achieve until the firebox arch came into use, but burning coke, with its low smoke emissions, was considered to meet the requirement. However, this rule was quietly dropped and cheaper coal became the normal fuel, as railways gained acceptance among the general public.

In the late 19th century, the coalfields of western Pennsylvania provided a rich source of raw material for coking. In 1885, the Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal and Iron Company^[4] constructed the world's longest string of coke ovens in Walston, Pennsylvania, with 475 ovens over a length of 2 km (1.25 miles). Their output reached 22,000 tons per month. The Minersville Coke Ovens in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.^[5]

Production[link]

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Coke oven at smokeless fuel plant, South Wales

Volatile constituents of the coal—including water, coal-gas, and coal-tar—are driven off by baking in an airless furnace or oven at temperatures as high as 2,000 degrees Celsius (3632 degrees Fahrenheit) usually around 1000-1100 degrees Celsius though.(http://www.worldcoal.org/coal/uses-of-coal/coal-steel/) This fuses together the fixed carbon and residual ash. Most modern facilities have "by-product" coking ovens. Today, the volatile hydrocarbons are mainly used, after purification, in a separate combustion process to generate energy. Non by-product coking furnaces or coke furnaces (ovens) burn the hydrocarbon gases produced by the coke-making process to drive the carbonization process.

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. This blending is targeted at producing a coke of appropriate strength (generally measured by coke strength after reaction (CSR), while losing an appropriate amount of mass. Other blending considerations include ensuring the coke doesn't swell too much during production and destroy the coke oven through excessive wall pressures.

The greater the volatile matter in coal, the more by-product can be produced. It is generally considered that levels of 26-29 percent of volatile matter in the coal blend are good for coking purposes. Thus different types of coal are proportionally blended to reach acceptable levels of volatility before the coking process begins.

Natural coke is formed when a coal seam is intersected by a volcanic intrusion. These intrusions heat the surrounding coal in an anoxic atmosphere producing coke in a zone (usually several meters) around the intrusion. However, the coke is of wildly varying strength and ash content and is generally considered unsaleable except in some cases as a thermal product—as it has lost its volatile matter it has lost the ability to be coked again.

Uses[link]

Coke is used as a fuel and as a reducing agent in smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. It is there to reduce the iron oxide (hematite) in order to collect iron.

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, while bituminous coal would produce much smoke.

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 had been planning to utilize coke and other materials for the heat shield for its next generation space craft, named Orion, before that project's cancellation.^{[citation needed]}

Coke was widely used as a substitute for coal in domestic heating following the creation of Smokeless zones in the United Kingdom when the government paid for new grates suitable for the fuel. Ironically the grates required the use of a gas fired poker to light the fuel so the new installation included installation of a gas line adjacent to the fireplace. Most consumers converted to a gas fire designed to work with an existing chimney within a few years.

Highland Park distillery in Orkney malt barley for use in their Scotch whisky in kilns burning a mixture of coke and peat. The peat is burned for the initial stage of roasting the barley - while the barley can still absorb the particular desired aromas of the peat - lasting for approximately 12 hours; then for the final 36 hours the barley is roasted under the heat of the burning coke.^[6]

Gas byproducts[link]

Coke may be used to make synthesis gas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

• Syngas; Water gas: a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, made by passing steam over red-hot coke (or any carbon based char)
• Producer gas; wood gas; generator gas; synthetic gas; suction gas: a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and nitrogen, made by passing air over red-hot coke (or any carbon based char)

Properties[link]

Hanna furnaces of the Great Lakes Steel Corporation, Detroit. Coal tower atop coke ovens. November 1942.

The bulk specific gravity of coke is typically around 0.77. It is highly porous.

The most important properties of coke are ash and sulfur content, which are linearly dependent on the coal used for production. Coke with less ash and sulfur content is highly priced on the market. Other important characteristics are the M10, M25, and M40 test crush indexes, which convey the strength of coke during transportation into the blast furnaces; depending on blast furnaces size, finely crushed coke pieces must not be allowed into the blast furnaces because they would impede gas dynamics. A related characteristic is the Coke strength after reaction (CSR) index; it represents coke's ability to withstand the violent conditions inside the blast furnace before turning into fine particles.

The water content in coke is practically zero at the end of the coking process, but coke is often water quenched to reduce its temperature so that it can be transported inside the blast furnaces. The porous structure of coke absorbs some water, usually 3-6 % of its mass. In some more modern coke plants an advanced method of coke cooling is by air quenching.

Bituminous coal must meet a set of criteria for use as coking coal, determined by particular coal assay techniques. See Section "Production".

The volatility of coke reaches minimum levels at the end of the coking process.

Other processes[link]

The Illawarra Coke Company (ICC) in Coalcliff, New South Wales, Australia.

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 and electrodes. 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.

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Coke (fuel)

External links[link]

• Coking coal manufacturing procedure

Look up coke or Coke in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Coke may refer to:

• Coca-Cola, a soft drink originally based on coca leaf extract
  • The Coca-Cola Company, makers of this drink
  • Cola, any soft drink similar to Coca-Cola
  • Soft drink, any non-alcoholic carbonated beverage
• Slang or street name for Cocaine HCl.
• Coke (fuel), a solid carbonaceous residue derived from destructive distillation of coal
• Petroleum coke, a solid, carbon-rich residue derived from distillation of crude oil
• Coke County, Texas, a county in central Texas, United States

People named Coke[link]

Surname

• Christopher "Dudus" Coke (b. 1969), alleged drug lord in Jamaica
• David Coke (1915–1941), a British pilot during World War II
• Edward Coke (1552–1634), English entrepreneur and jurist
• Edward Coke (politician), a British politician and landowner
• Edward Coke, 7th Earl of Leicester (born 1936), a British earl
• Giles Coke, an English footballer
• John Coke (1563–1644), an English politician
• Peter Coke (1913–2008), a British actor, playwright and artist
• Phil Coke, an American major league baseball pitcher on the Tigers as of 2010-2011
• Richard Coke, an American lawyer, farmer, and statesman
• Thomas Coke (bishop) (1747–1814), the first Methodist Bishop
• Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (seventh creation) (1754–1842), agricultural reformer.

Nickname

• Jorge Andújar Moreno (b. 1987), a Spanish football (soccer) player commonly known as Coke

Given name

• Coke R. Stevenson (1888–1975), Governor of Texas from 1941 to 1947

See also[link]

• Earl of Leicester

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Wood was one of the first fuels used by humans and is still the primary energy source in much of the world.^{[citation needed]}

Fuel is any material that stores energy that can later be extracted to perform mechanical work in a controlled manner. Most fuels used by humans undergo combustion, a redox reaction in which a combustible substance releases energy after it ignites and reacts with the oxygen in the air. Other processes used to convert fuel into energy include various other exothermic chemical reactions and nuclear reactions, such as nuclear fission or nuclear fusion. Fuels are also used in the cells of organisms in a process known as cellular respiration, where organic molecules are oxidized to release usable energy. Hydrocarbons are by far the most common source of fuel used by humans, but many other substances, such as radioactive metals, are currently used as well .

Chemical[link]

Chemical fuels are substances that release energy by reacting with substances around them, most notably by the process of oxidation.

Biofuels[link]

Biofuel can be broadly defined as solid, liquid, or gas fuel consisting of, or derived from biomass. Biomass can also be used directly for heating or power—known as biomass fuel. Biofuel can be produced from any carbon source that can be replenished rapidly e.g. plants. Many different plants and plant-derived materials are used for biofuel manufacture.

Perhaps the earliest fuel employed by humans is wood. Evidence shows controlled fire was used up to 1.5 million years ago at Swartkrans, South Africa. It is unknown which hominid species first used fire, as both Australopithecus and an early species of Homo were present at the sites.^[1] As a fuel, wood has remained in use up until the present day, although it has been superseded for many purposes by other sources. Wood has an energy density of 10–20 MJ/kg.^[2]

Recently biofuels have been developed for use in automotive transport (for example Bioethanol and Biodiesel), but there is widespread public debate about how carbon efficient these fuels are.

Fossil fuels[link]

Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons, primarily coal and petroleum (liquid petroleum or natural gas), formed from the fossilized remains of ancient plants and animals^[3] by exposure to high heat and pressure in the absence of oxygen in the Earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years.^[4] Commonly, the term fossil fuel also includes hydrocarbon-containing natural resources that are not derived entirely from biological sources, such as tar sands. These latter sources are properly known as mineral fuels.

Nuclear[link]

Nuclear fuel is any material that is consumed to derive nuclear energy. Technically speaking this definition includes all matter because any element will under the right conditions release nuclear energy, the only materials that are commonly referred to as nuclear fuels though are those that will produce energy without being placed under extreme duress.

Fission[link]

Nuclear fuel pellets are used to create nuclear energy.

The most common type of nuclear fuel used by humans is heavy fissile elements that can be made to undergo nuclear fission chain reactions in a nuclear fission reactor; nuclear fuel can refer to the material or to physical objects (for example fuel bundles composed of fuel rods) composed of the fuel material, perhaps mixed with structural, neutron moderating, or neutron reflecting materials. The most common fissile nuclear fuels are ²³⁵U and ²³⁹Pu, and the actions of mining, refining, purifying, using, and ultimately disposing of these elements together make up the nuclear fuel cycle, which is important for its relevance to nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons. In addition there are various types of fuels.

Fusion[link]

Fuels that produce energy by the process of nuclear fusion are currently not utilized by man but are the main source of fuel for stars, the most powerful energy sources in nature. Fusion fuels tend to be light elements such as hydrogen which will combine easily.

In stars that undergo nuclear fusion, fuel consists of atomic nuclei that can release energy by the absorption of a proton or neutron. In most stars the fuel is provided by hydrogen, which can combine together to form helium through the proton-proton chain reaction or by the CNO cycle. When the hydrogen fuel is exhausted, nuclear fusion can continue with progressively heavier elements, although the net energy released is lower because of the smaller difference in nuclear binding energy. Once iron-56 or nickel-56 nuclei are produced, no further energy can be obtained by nuclear fusion as these have the highest nuclear binding energies.^[5]

World trade[link]

Fuel imports in 2005

World Bank reported that the USA was the top fuel importer in 2005 followed by the EU and Japan.^{[citation needed]}

Use over time[link]

The first use of fuel was the combustion of wood or sticks by Homo erectus near 2 million years ago.^{[6][page needed]} Throughout the majority of human history fuels derived from plants or animal fat were the only ones available for human use. Charcoal, a wood derivative, has been used since at least 6,000 BCE for smelting metals. It was only supplanted by coke, derived from coal, as the forests started to become depleted around the 18th century. Charcoal briquettes are now commonly used as a fuel for barbecue cooking.^[7]

Coal was first used as a fuel around 1000 BCE in China. With the development of the steam engine in 1769, coal came into more common use as a power source. Coal was later used to drive ships and locomotives. By the 19 th century, gas extracted from coal was being used for street lighting in London. In the 20th century, the primary use of coal is for the generation of electricity, providing 40% of the world's electrical power supply in 2005.^[8]

Fossil fuels were rapidly adopted during the industrial revolution, because they were more flexible than traditional energy sources, such as water power.

Currently the trend has been towards renewable fuels, such as biofuels like alcohols.

See also[link]

Energy portal

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Ratcliff, Brian et al. (2000). Chemistry 1. Cambridge University press. ISBN 0-521-78778-5. 

Further reading[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fuels

• Directive 1999/94/EC of the European Parliament and of the council of 13 December 1999, relating to the availability of consumer information on fuel economy and CO2 emissions in respect of the marketing of new passenger carsPDF (140 KiB).
• Council Directive 80/1268/EEC Fuel consumption of motor vehicles.

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With Friends Like These... is a 1998 film by Philip Frank Messina. It stars Robert Costanzo, Jon Tenney, David Strathairn and Adam Arkin, and features a cameo by Bill Murray.

Summary[link]

In the film, four small-time two-bit character actors (Costanzo, Tenney, Strathairn and Arkin), all close friends, are competing for same important part in the next Martin Scorsese mob film.

Cast[link]

• Adam Arkin - Steve Hersh
• David Strathairn - Armand Minetti
• Jon Tenney - Dorian Mastandrea
• Robert Costanzo - Johnny DiMartino
• Amy Madigan - Hannah DiMartino
• Laura San Giacomo - Joanne Hersh
• Elle Macpherson - Samantha Mastandrea
• Lauren Tom - Yolanda Chin
• Beverly D'Angelo - Theresa Carpenter
• Ashley Peldon - Marissa DiMartino
• Allison Bertolino - Dana DiMartino
• Bill Murray - Maurice Melnick
• Frederika Kesten - Catrice
• Carmine Costanzo - Nino DiMartino
• Heather Stephens - Babette
• Martin Scorsese - Himself

External links[link]

• With Friends Like These... at the Internet Movie Database.
• With Friends Like These... at AllRovi

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