Prospect of non/heat recovery coke oven plant in India

Abstract

Low Ash Metallurgical Coke is required for metallurgical and chemical industries and is used as the primary fuel. The industrial consumers of LAMC include integrated steel plants, industry/foundries producing Ferro Alloys, Pig Iron, Engineering Goods, Chemicals, Soda Ash and Zinc units etc. Therefore, our main emphasis lies in the manufacturing methods or techniques of coke and industries adopting it. The importance of Coke in blast furnaces is that coke is primarily used to smelt iron ore and other bearing materials, acting both as a source of heat and as a chemical reducing agent to produce pig iron or hot metal. It has been observed that about 33% of total investment is made in the coke plant in iron making. Basically, there are mainly two types of coke oven plants, viz., By-product coke oven plants and Non/Heat Recovery Coke Plants. In this paper, elaborate discussion has been made regarding the suitability of the Non/Heat Recovery Coke Oven Technologies in our country. The technologies which are famous and widely adopted in India for coke making are Jewell Thompson Technology, Chinese Technology, Kumbharaj Technology and Dasgupta Technology. In Non/Heat Recovery Coke Oven, the waste heat from waste gas of coking can be fully utilized in power generation, resulting in better coke quality and low emission levels. Moreover, this paper will embody the details of some Coke Plants in India which have adopted Non/Heat Recovery Coke Ovens. The salient features of the above four technologies as well as the comparison between By-product Coke Ovens and Non/Heat Recovery Coke Ovens plants are highlighted. On the basis of detailed analysis, the advantages and disadvantages of these technologies are envisaged and some recommendations have been made in this paper.