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Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association
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Control of Coke Oven Emissions by Use of A Closed
Pipeline Charging System
George E. Balch
a
a
Semet-Solvay Division, Allied Chemical Corporation
Published online: 15 Mar 2012.
To cite this article: George E. Balch (1972) Control of Coke Oven Emissions by Use of A Closed Pipeline Charging System,
Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association, 22:3, 187-190, DOI: 10.1080/00022470.1972.10469627
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00022470.1972.10469627
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The body of information presented in this paper is directed to those individuals
concerned with the control of air pollution emissions which occur as a result of the
operation of by-product coke plants. It describes a new process which represents
a major change in the charging operation wherein preheated coal can be charged
to coke ovens via a closed pipeline system thus replacing the conventional larry
charging car and thereby eliminating air pollution estimated to be as much as 70%
of the total emissions from coke oven operations. Coal is dried and preheated in a
continuous fluidized bed process utilizing products of combustion of coke oven gas.
The coal is recovered in conventional cyclone collectors and conveyed to the ovens
via a new and novel pneumatic conveying system where the gas used is super-
heated steam. Jet energy repeatedly thrusts the coal upward and forward
through the pipe, obtaining a high efficiency of transport of solids ten times that
of conventional systems. Major advantages of the process demonstrated to
date include (1) elimination of emissions from charging, (2) reduction of emission
from pushing, (3) improved battery top working conditions, (4) increased oven
productivity as much as 45%.
Control of Coke Oven Emissions by Use of
A Closed Pipeline Charging System
George E. Batch
Semet-Solvay Division, Allied Chemical Corporation
The last major change in basic coke oven
technology which produced a significant
reduction in air pollution emissions oc-
curred nearly 80 years ago with the in-
troduction of the by-product coking pro-
cess as a replacement for beehive ovens.
Since 1892, when the first by-product
coke plant in the United States was built
by Semet-Solvay at Syracuse, consisting
of a battery of twelve 4 ton ovens, to the
present day battery containing as many
as eighty 35 tons ovens, there have been
many refinements in equipment size
and design but few if any real significant
changes in the basic technology of the
process itself.
As was the case in 1892, it is still
necessary in 1971 to remove lids from
oven top charging holes, empty a quan-
tity of cold, wet coal into a hot oven and
some 16 or more hours later remove the
oven doors to push the hot coke into an
open car for transport to a quenching
station. And as was true in 1892 each
of these operations still produces highly
visible and copious emissions to the at-
mosphere, generally darker in shade or
appearance than that designated as No.
2 on the Bingelmann Smoke Chart.
In recent years, however, the pres-
sures resulting from increased public
awareness and concern for the environ-
ment have stimulated efforts by the
coking industry throughout the world
to seek solutions to these and all emis-
sion problems associated with coke
plant operations. The status of some
of these efforts has been reported re-
cently in considerable detail in the im-
pressive "Final Report on Evaluation of
Process Alternatives to Improve Control
of Air Pollution from Production of
Coke," prepared by Cattelle Memorial
Institute under contract to the Division
of Process Control Engineering of the
National Air Pollution Control Ad-
ministration and released January 31,
1970.
1
As is generally agreed, the Battelle
report confirmed that of seven primary
sources of emissions from coking, the
most serious problem occurs during the
charging operation.
In the conventional charging process,
prepared pulverized coals, blended and
adjusted for appropriate bulk density,
are carried as weighed individual charges
along the battery top from the coal
storage bunkers to the coke ovens in a
broad-gauge, tracked vehicle with three
to five hoppers. The vehicle is called a
larry car. The larry-car hoppers then
discharge the coal to the oven through
chutes into round ports on top of the
oven. After the coal has been dumped,
a small "chuck door" is opened in the
top of the oven door on one side, and a
long steel beam is pushed back and
forth along the top of the coal to level
it.
The emissions accompanying con-
ventional larry car charging of coke
ovens arise because of three factors :
1. The moisture in the coal is immedi-
ately in contact with the incandes-
cent oven walls and floor, and much
of it is flash-vaporized, carrying coal
fines and smoke along with it.
2. The coal itself is susceptible to
thermochemical breakdown as soon
as it has been heated to over 600F;
and smoke, tar vapors, and gases
are formed.
3. The entering coal rapidly displaces
about 90% of the free space in the
empty oven, and the usual result is
that a highly visible emission of
March 1972 Volume 22, No. 3 187
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Primary separator-^
To
atmosphere
Secondary dust collectors
Screw conveyor
f Recycle Ovens Ovens |
Products of combustion
Fi gur e 1. Flow diagram. Allied Chemical process for sealed system pipeline charging preheated
coal to coke ovens.
steam, gas, smoke and dust occurs
from the oven ports and chuck door
during charging.
The Semet-Solvay Division of Allied
Chemical Corp. has developed a new
process which represents a major change
in the charging operation wherein pre-
heated coal can be consistently and
safely charged to coke ovens via a closed
pipeline system, thus replacing the
conventional larry charging car and
thereby eliminating air pollution esti-
mated to be as much as 70% of the
total emissions from coke oven opera-
tions, by eliminating the source rather
than by the use of auxiliary external con-
trol equipment.
The concept of utilizing preheated
coal as a means of improving through-
put, quality and economy of the coke-
making operation has been a goal of
the industry for several decades. How-
ever, because of certain basic problems
including air pollution potential, danger
of fire and explosion, a workable pro-
cess to heat and transfer hot coal into
the ovens had not previously been de-
veloped until Allied Chemical, in 1968,
following a 13-year effort successfully
demonstrated its process
The initial work on preheating of coal
began at Semet-Solvay's Coal and Coke
Research Laboratory at Ashland, Ky.
in 1954 and 1955. Extensive research
and development work continued in
the early '60\s and subsequently during
1967 and 1968 a 6-oven pilot plant was
successfully operated at Ironton, Ohio.
A more detailed review of early labora-
tory and experimental work was pre-
sented in a paper by Messrs. Marting
and Balch given at The Iron and Steel
Meeting in London in 1969.
2
The developments during 1967 and
1968 led to the selection and installation
of a new fluidized bed coal preheater and
extension of a new type pipeline mani-
fold to all 24 ovens in our No. 2 battery
at Ironton.
Our knowledge to date with respect
to pipeline charging is extensive and
results from substantial development
costs over a 13 year period and signifi-
cant capital expenditures at Ironton,
where we have converted an existing
battery to this process.
At this location, blast furnace coke is
today being commercially produced
from a battery of 24 fifteen-ton capacity
ovens which are routinely being charged
with preheated coal conveyed and intro-
duced into the ovens by means of a
closed pipeline system.
Start-up of this prototype installation
was in late October of 1970 and opera-
tions have been continuous since that
time except for brief periods required
for desired modifications particularly in
connection with materials handling
equipment retained from the original
installation in 1964. A detailed review
of the start-up and initial operations of
this unit was presented by the author
for publication at the Ironmaking Con-
ference of the American Institute of
Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum
Engineers in Pittsburgh on April 20,
1971.
3
We have been most satisfied
with the relative ease of the start-up and
of the performance of the new type pre-
heater in meeting design expectations
and of the reliability of the pipelining
operation which has approached 100%.
From the beginning of this operation it
definitely demonstrated that the tech-
nology was ready for immediate com-
mercialization.
At this point we would like to review
stepwise the process flow sheet as shown
in Figure 1.
Description of Flow Di agram
Starting at the upper left-hand corner
of the flow diagram, wet coal is with-
drawn from an existing coal storage bin
by any one of three screw conveyors.
The conveying system is equipped with
a magnetic pulley for tramp iron re-
moval and a 1 in. screen. The oversize
coal is crushed to sizes smaller than one
inch.
Coal from the hopper is fed to the
preheater by a variable speed screw.
The wet coal is fed into a flash-drying
entrainment section where it comes into
contact with a stream of hot oxygen-free
gas. The gas carries the partly dried
coal up to a diluted-phase fluidized bed.
188 Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association
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In the combustion chamber, low-
sulfur coke oven gas is burned stoichio-
metrically or with a slight deficiency of
air for complete combustion. Design
specifications call for less than 1% oxy-
gen in the products of combustion, and
in actual practice, this is ordinarily less
than Y2 of 1% of oxygen. The com-
position of the combustion gases is
automatically and constantly analyzed
to determine oxygen and combustibles
content.
The hot gases leaving the combustion
chamber are a mixture of freshly burned
gas and recycled products of combus-
tion. The recycling serves four pur-
poses:
1. The mixing of recycle gas with new
products of combustion lowers the
temperature of the gases to which
the wet coal is exposed and maintains
maximum temperatures at this point
without damaging incoming wet coal.
2. The volume of gas recycled relates to
the velocity of the coal stream leaving
the preheater, as will be discussed
later.
3. Recycling of the products of com-
bustion permits limiting of the tem-
perature in the combustion chamber
so that exotic refractory materials
are not required.
The mixed gases leave the combustion
chamber with a temperature range from
725F to 1200F, and pass through the
Venturi section where the upward ve-
locity is about 100 fps. The wet coal is
pushed into this high volume gas stream
by the feed screw, and the upward flow
in the I-Y2 ft long flash-drying section
will range from 30,000 to 35,000 cfm.
Temperature at the upper end of the
flash-drying section approaches 500F.
A rotating swing-hammer crusher
in the lower part of the fluid bed cham-
ber provides rapid dispersion and agita-
tion of the coal particles in the gas
stream and breaks the larger coal pieces
into smaller particles (top size about
} / % in.). The upward velocity of the
gases leaving the preheater is controlled
at a pre-selected velocity which con-
trols the size of the particles being lifted
out of the preheater, and the Ironton
installation was designed such that par-
ticles } / % i
n
- or smaller are carried out of
the preheater. Larger particles fall
back until they are reduced to } / % in.
or smaller by one of the swinging ham-
mers. All preheated coal goes overhead
and is recovered in one primary and
four secondary conventional cyclone
separators.
Hot coal from the bottom of the cy-
clones is conveyed to a 35-ton capacity
hot coal receiving bin. Two oven
charges can be held in this bin. From
the receiving bin the hot coal is conveyed
intermittently, as needed, to an ele-
vated measuring bin. It is then ready
for transport to the ovens.
The gas from the outlet of the sec-
ondary collector is split into two streams.
The excess gas passes through a three
stage Sly Impinjet wet scrubber where
it is cleaned and then exhausted to
the atmosphere. Figure 2 is a photo-
graph of the cyclone separators. The
recycle gas is boosted in pressure by
means of a recycle blower and then
returned to the combustion chamber
where it is used to temper and add to the
flow of combustion gases passing up
through the preheater. Automatic con-
trols adjust the flow of recycle gas to
that required to maintain the desired
flow up through the preheater.
From the measuring bin, coal is
conveyed through the transport pipe
to the ovens whenever an oven is ready
to be charged. The manifold contains
individual valves for each of the 24
ovens. Coal transport is induced in
the pipes by means of steam jets spaced
along the bottom of the pipe. The
coal charging operator opens the appro-
priate valve and then charges the oven
by using a set of push-button controls
located at the end of the battery.
When the desired amount of coal has
been charged, automatic controls shut
the valve at the outlet of the measuring
bin, stop the feeder and after a time
interval to provide for the emptying
of the pipeline into the oven being
charged, shut off the transport steam in
the conveying jets.
Essential Features of t he
Pi pel i ni ng System
The pipeline charging is accomplished
by a new and novel pneumatic convey-
ing system wherein:
1. The gas used is superheated steam
which minimizes all hazards of fire
and explosion.
2. The efficiency of the new system
stated in pounds of solids transported
per pound of conveying gas is ten
times that of conventional systems
for a given pipe size.
3. The high efficiency is obtained by
introducing the conveying steam at
supersonic velocity from jets spaced
along the bottom of the pipeline.
Jet energy repeatedly thrusts the
coal upward and forward through
the pipe and thus eliminates the
need for the large-volume high-
velocity turbulent gas flows required
in conventional pneumatic systems.
As a result, pipeline wear is only a
fraction of that occurring in ordinary
pneumatic systems.
4. The design of the system permits
bleeding off a part of the conveying
steam, into another oven, to concen-
trate the stream of coal. The coal
coming down the pipeline enters a
long bend just before it enters the
oven. As the coal goes around this
bend it moves to the outside edge,
and about one-half of the conveying
steam is bled off from the inside edge
of the bend and passed through other
ovens.
5. The concentrated coal stream passes
through a reentrainment bend and
a short entry pipe into the oven
chamber. After about 5-tons of
coal have been charged, a semi-
fluidized bed is created within the
oven chamber and thereafter the
coal largely distributes itself across
the length of the oven. Levelling
of the charge has not been found
necessary at Ironton.
Figure 2. View of coal preheating unit show-
ing hot coal cyclone collectors, center.
March 1972 Volume 22, No. 3
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With reference to carryover of coal
fines into the by-product system we
note that this subject is also receiving
attention as an operating problem in
existing tall oven installations, where
rapid conventional charging techniques
and use of high quantities of aspirating
steam has increased coal fines in collect-
ing main tars. The collecting mains,
of course, are closed systems and the
degree of carryover is an internal process
operating problem, not an air pollution
problem. At Ironton, tar quality has
been acceptable while operating this
one battery at a charging rate of 2.5
ton/min. However, we are recom-
mending that subsequent installations
provide for a small collecting main sized
to accept only the gas from the oven
during charging. This will protect the
bulk of collecting main liquor from con-
tamination during charging and produce
a better quality tar than is being ob-
tained by conventional means.
Conclusions
Reduction of Air Pollution
Operation of the system at Ironton to
date has demonstrated that:
1. Emissions from the conventional
charging operation, estimated to be
as much as 70% of total coke oven
emissions have been eliminated.
2. The pipeline charging system which
now has delivered over 100,000
tons of preheated coal to more than
6000 oven charges, has operated
at nearly 100% reliability. No
larry car is involved, the oven lids
are sealed during charging, no as-
pirating steam is required, leveling
of the charge has not been necessary,
hence opening of the level bar chuck
door, a concurrent source of emis-
sion, is not required.
3. Although the plant has not yet at-
tained routine optimum operating
conditions, the use of preheated coal
has minimized emission problems
related to pushing as a result of the
direct effect of improved control over
five basic variables which contribute
to the problem of inadequately coked
coal and attendant pushing emis-
sions.
Specific effects of the use of preheated
coal on these variables are:
a. Provides more uniform coal bulk
density.
b. Eliminates coal moisture problem
and "wet spots."
c. Assures uniform oven-fill level;
each charge is metered.
d. Rate of heating is more constant
due to starting with preheated
coal at a uniform temperature.
e. Temperature gradients in oven
walls are far less affected due to
less drain on stored heat reserves.
4. The process also provides a marked
improvement in safety and battery
top working conditions with oven
lids sealed and no larry car traffic.
The polycyclic hydrocarbons formed
when coal comes in initial contact
with the hot oven walls, are now
contained internally and pass into
the closed gas collecting system.
Economic Benefits
1. Coke has been produced at a 4 5%
increase in oven productivity, even
without having yet attained opti-
mum operating conditions.
2. This process also permits the use of
lower-cost, poorer quality coking
coals, such as the high-oxygen con-
tent Southern Illinois coals, to pro-
duce acceptable metallurgical grade
coke. This would be an important
advantage to some producers who
could benefit from savings as much
as $0.75 per ton of coal, or for a
single modern battery as much as
$1,300,000 in annual savings. This
potential saving, as well as any
freight saving, would have to be
developed on a case-by-case basis.
However, those producers using
good quality coals can effect a signifi-
cant saving by using up to 10%
more of the lower-cost high-volatile
coal and 10% less of the more ex-
pensive low-volatile. The annual
saving could approximate $300,000
for a modern battery processing
1.5 million tons of coal per year.
3. The system appears to be readily
adaptable to automation.
4. Plant capacity may be increased
with minimum additional space re-
quirements.
While a discussion of cost estimates
for the system is not within the scope
of this paper, it is anticipated that capi-
tal costs will be somewhat lower than
the capital cost of equivalent capacity
obtained by building additional con-
ventional ovens.
To those producers requiring more
coke production, and with coke oven
batteries in generally good condition,
the process thus offers the potential of
significant operating benefits as well as a
solution to the major source of air
pollution associated with by-product
coke oven manufacture.
References
1. Barnes, T. M., Hoffman, A. O., and
Lownie, H. W. Jr., "Final Report on
Evaluation of Process Alternatives to
Improve Control of Air Pollution from
Production of Coke," Battelle Memorial
Institute report to Division of Process
Control Engineering, NAPCA, Jan.
1970.
2. Marting, D. G. and Balch, G. E.,
"Charging preheated coal to coke
ovens," Publication 127, Iron and Steel
Institute, London, (1970).
3. Balch, G. E., "Pipeline charging of
preheated coal to coke ovens" pre-
sented at the ironmaking Conference
of the American Institute of Mining,
Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engi-
neers, April 1971, Pittsburgh, for
publication by The Metallurgical So-
ciety.
Mr. Balch is Manager, Air and
Water Pollution Control, Semet-
Solvay Division, Allied Chemical
Corp., P. O. Box 1013, Morris-
town, N. J. 07960. The installation
described is located at Semet-Solvay
Division's Ironton, Ohio Metallur-
gical Coke Plant. This paper was
presented as Paper No. 71-89 at
the 64th Annual Meeting of APCA
at Atlantic City, N. J. in June 1971.
190
Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association
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