VCM in Green Petroleum Coke

[Freddy MartinezParticipant]

Can anyody Please advise the composition of the VCM in Green Petroleum Coke

[Charles RandallParticipant]

Because of low pressure & high temp of coking process (+950 C/1472 F) most of the VCM in green petroleum coke is mostly resid with some lighter components removed.

There was fairly good review of petcoke by API group for EPA which looked at petroleum coke for both Qualitative and Hazard focus for EPA on both green and calacined petcoke.
They confirmed it and Volatile material as non-hazardous (as it appears on all MSDS sheets) and both chemically & physically inert.
API’s PDF makes pretty good reference for lot cases – here was my old link to it :

http://www.epa.gov/hpv/pubs/summaries/ptrlcoke/c12563rr2.pdf

Because the Volatiles in petcoke is resid in nature and formed at high temp – measurments for vapor pressure, boiling point or vapor pressure are not going to produce any
meaningful data at ambient environmental conditions. The VM levels range from 9 to 21% and vary by the type petcoke your talking about : Delayed- Sponge/Shot/Needle, or Fluid/Flexicoke, and if it is green or calcined coke. The residum will be somewhat different due many different crude feedstocks that make up the resid components for the individual refinery & of course the variable operating conditions of temp/pressure/cycletime/coker design & technology employed ……. but when your looking at molecular soup we call resid and poly-methyl-chickenwire components the VCM is fairly uniform.

Regards & hope this helps

[Anonymous]

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
           Date sampled  
03.11.05
11.11.05
16.11.05
22.11.05
29.11.05
 
 

 
 
 
Date certified  
07.11.05
12.11.05
17.11.05
23.11.05
30.11.05
14.06.2008
26.07.10

   Test report of RPC
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

METHOD
CHARACTERISTICS
UNIT
REQUIREMENTS
RESULT
RESULT
RESULT
RESULT
RESULT
 
 

[ P : ] of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

IS 1448
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Bulk density at 15 deg.C
gm/cc
0.677
0.8166
0.8156
0.7925
0.7982
0.8582
0.801
0.76

P:132
Moisture content, as received
max ,%wt
8.50
6.5
6.7
6.9
7.2
7.6
8.62
9.45

P:132
Moisture content(as powder)
%wt
2.00
0.39
0.41
0.52
0.53
0.46
0.84
0.83

P:126
Ash content 
%wt
0.20
0.095
0.097
0.1
0.098
248249
0.061
0.085

P:134
Volatile matter
%wt
9.00
7.56
7.61
7.66
7.74
7.74
9.65
8.65

IS 8502, Annex A
Fixed carbon
min. %wt
90.50
91.955
91.883
91.72
91.632
91.8
89.449
 

XRF
Sulphur
max ,%wt
1.05
0.83
0.81
0.83
0.85
0.84
0.81
 

AAS
Silicon
ppm
 
328329
330331
332333
334335
336337
 
 

AAS
Iron        
ppm
 
354355
356357
358359
360361
362363
 
 

XRF
Vanadium
ppm
 
376377
378379
380381
382383
384385
 
 

XRF
Nickel
ppm
 
398399
400401
402403
404405
406407
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[Charles RandallParticipant]

The guest question was about the VCM in Petcoke – and I am not sure what this series of analysis is susposed to be?

It appears to be a coke sample and the carbon and VCM levels are in right range for coke but the sulfur is very low & the metals make no sense – I know of no petcoke with +30,000 ppm of anything let alone all of them FE/NI/VA. I believe XOM has fluid coke that has ~20,000 ppm Vanadium but it is sold as Vanadium ore instead of petcoke.

Nove of these values really have anything to do with what Volatile Matter is or its composition as far as I can see.

Please if your going to post an quality data put some comments around what it is representing & what it has to do around the original topic/question.
Regards

[Anonymous]

Thanks , this is a good material , but still did not get the answer , mainly interested in the composition of the VCM in the Anode Grade Green Petroleum Coke, or at least the % of C, H, O if available and S
 

[Charles RandallParticipant]

As mentioned before the properties are going vary by type resid & type green anode petcoke which varies by both region and coker.

Why on earth would you care? The volatile matter which averages 9-12% for most green anode petcokes will have the Carbon/Hydrogen/Sulfur/Nitrogen/Oxygen along with moisture/water consumed during the calcination process along with a portion of the petcokes (usually fines). The calciner stacks usually have scrubbers and emissions are for whole process not just Volatiles (you have natural gass consumed to provide heat to reach ignition & “calcine” the petcoke.

Many Calciners, Smelters, Refiners often report comparison of green anode vs calcined as ratio to show chemical/physical change – and there should be reports from SAF/AJEdmonds/SGC labs on this.
The largest component of VCM is going to be Carbon, followed by Sulfur (most sulfur for anode cokes – especially any below 1.5%S is bound with petcoke & only small amount in VCM) and Hydrogen – Oxygen will be impacted by moisture removal along with VCM removal.

All of merchant refiners like Rain-CII, Oxbow-GLC and ect will blend several green petcokes to make a blended calcined product specifications. Most Refiners only calcine the plant produced petcoke as single component that often does not meet full Aluminum specifications without the plant modifying its quality standards and is almost always a domestic consumer (unless the plant blends CPC’s to make its Anodes at Smelters baking plant).

So if you want the specific properties you will have to test the specific type coke at the specific plant in question & use one of the labs that is certified for this process to get your answer.

BTW – if this is for an environmetal purpose ….. you can stick it.

[Author]

Posts