Influence of Calcination Temperature and Sulfur Level on Coke Properties

Abstract

The majority of RUSAL’s Russian smelters have to deal with challenges that are created by blending and calcining green cokes with varying chemical and physical properties and, especially, the problem is associated with high-sulfur cokes. It has been widely reported in the literature that desulfurization, which occurs during petroleum coke calcination, negatively affects coke quality. To assess the risks of desulfurization and its influence on the coke physical structure, the RUSAL Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Smelter has run several experimental trials regarding the calcining of petroleum coke in an industrial rotary kiln at different temperatures. This paper discusses the physical changes in calcined coke with different sulfur contents in an industrial rotary kiln where the real density and carboxy reactivity of high-sulfur coke are shown to be extremely dependent on the temperature of calcination and non-predictable from 1200 to 1350 °C.