Coke purification

Purification of Carbide Acetylene. The purity of carbide acetylene depends largely on the quaUty of carbide employed and, to a much lesser degree, on the type of generator and its operation. Carbide quahty in turn is affected by the impurities in the raw materials used in carbide production, specifically, the purity of the metallurgical coke and the limestone from which the lime is produced. The nature and amounts of impurities in carbide acetylene are shown in Table 4. 

The carbon black (soot) produced in the partial combustion and electrical discharge processes is of rather small particle si2e and contains substantial amounts of higher (mostly aromatic) hydrocarbons which may render it hydrophobic, sticky, and difficult to remove by filtration. Electrostatic units, combined with water scmbbers, moving coke beds, and bag filters, are used for the removal of soot. The recovery is illustrated by the BASF separation and purification system (23). The bulk of the carbon in the reactor effluent is removed by a water scmbber (quencher). Residual carbon clean-up is by electrostatic filtering in the case of methane feedstock, and by coke particles if the feed is naphtha. Carbon in the quench water is concentrated by flotation, then burned. 

The dehydrogenation of the mixture of m- and -ethyltoluenes is similar to that of ethylbenzene, but more dilution steam is required to prevent rapid coking on the catalyst. The recovery and purification of vinyltoluene monomer is considerably more difficult than for styrene owing to the high boiling point and high rate of thermal polymerization of the former and the complexity of the reactor effluent, which contains a large number of by-products. Pressures as low as 2.7 kPa (20 mm Hg) are used to keep distillation temperatures low even in the presence of polymerization inhibitor. The finished vinyltoluene monomer typically has an assay of 99.6%. 

In the case of low temperature tar, the aqueous Hquor that accompanies the cmde tar contains between 1 and 1.5% by weight of soluble tar acids, eg, phenol, cresols, and dihydroxybenzenes. Both for the sake of economics and effluent purification, it is necessary to recover these, usually by the Lurgi Phenosolvan process based on the selective extraction of the tar acids with butyl or isobutyl acetate. The recovered phenols are separated by fractional distillation into monohydroxybenzenes, mainly phenol and cresols, and dihydroxybenzenes, mainly (9-dihydroxybenzene (catechol), methyl (9-dihydtoxybenzene, (methyl catechol), and y -dihydroxybenzene (resorcinol). The monohydric phenol fraction is added to the cmde tar acids extracted from the tar for further refining, whereas the dihydric phenol fraction is incorporated in wood-preservation creosote or sold to adhesive manufacturers. Naphthalene Oils. Naphthalene is the principal component of coke-oven tats and the only component that can be concentrated to a reasonably high content on primary distillation. Naphthalene oils from coke-oven tars distilled in a modem pipe stiU generally contain 60—65% of naphthalene. They are further upgraded by a number of methods. 

Other Uses. The quantity of coal used for purposes other than combustion or processing is quite small (2,6). Coal, especially anthracite, has estabHshed markets for use as purifying and filtering agents in either the natural form or converted to activated carbon (see Carbon). The latter can be prepared from bituminous coal or coke, and is used in sewage treatment, water purification, respirator absorbers, solvent recovery, and in the food industry. Some of these markets are quite profitable and new uses are continually being sought for this material. 

Reflux overhead vapor recompression, staged crude pre-heat, mechanical vacuum pumps Fluid coking to gasification, turbine power recovery train at the FCC, hydraulic turbine power recovery, membrane hydrogen purification, unit to hydrocracker recycle loop Improved catalysts (reforming), and hydraulic turbine power recovery Process management and integration... 

Absorption is a commonly applied operation in chemical processing. It is used as a raw material or a product recovery technique in separation and purification of gaseous streams containing high concentrations of organics (e.g., in natural gas purification and coke by-product recovery operations). In absorption, the organics in the gas stream are dissolved in a liquid solvent. The contact between the absorbing liquid and the vent gas is accomplished in countercurrent spray towers, scrubbers, or packed or plate columns. 

Hydrogen sulfide in manufactured gases may range from approximately 2.30 g/m (100 gr/100 ft ) in blue and carbureted water gas to sever hundred grains in coal- and coke-oven gases. Another important sulfur impurity is carbon disulfide, which may be present in amounts varying from 0.007 to 0.07 percent by volume. Smaller amounts of carbon oj sulfide, mercaptans, and thiophene may be found. However, most of the impurities are removed during the purification process and either do not exist in the finished product or are present in only trace amounts. 

Elemental carbon has many important applications. The diamond is a precious gem, known to mankind for ages graphite is used as an electrode and has numerous other applications carbon-14 isotope is used in carbon dating and the isotope carbon-13 in tracer studies and NMR. Carbon black is used in paints, pigments and inks. Activated carbon is used as an adsorbent for purification of water and separation of gases. Coke is used for electrothermal reduction of metal oxides to their metals. These applications are discussed below in more detail. 

Carbon also is produced and used in other forms namely, activated carbon, carbon black, and coke, that have many commercial applications. Structurally they are amorphous forms of carbon belonging to the graphites. Activated carbon or activated charcoal has a highly porous honeycomb-like internal structure and adsorbs many gases, vapors, and colloidal solids over its very large internal surface area. Some of its major applications include purification of water and air, air analysis, waste treatment, removal of subur dioxide from stack gases, and decolorization of sugar. 

In Japan, there is a project aimed at capturing the considerable volume of hydrogen gas which can be obtained as a by-product steel production. R D will focus on the purification process of fuel from coke oven gas to an acceptable level for fuel cell utilisation. METI, the Japan Research and Development Centre for Metals and Nippon Steel are working on the project with a 2003 budget allocation of 549 million. Japan also operates the 4C/.f project which aimsto develop an optimum coal gasifier for fuel cells and the establishment of gas clean-up system for purification of coal gas to the acceptable level for utilisation for MCFC and SOFC. The budget allocations for 2000-2003 total 4.6 billion. 

Thermal dehydrochlorination of 1,2-dichloroethane188-190 272 273 takes place at temperatures above 450°C and at pressures about 25-30 atm. A gas-phase free-radical chain reaction with chlorine radical as the chain-transfer agent is operative. Careful purification of 1,2-dichloroethane is required to get high-purity vinyl chloride. Numerous byproducts and coke are produced in the process. The amount of these increases with increasing conversion and temperature. Conversion levels, therefore, are kept at about 50-60%. Vinyl chloride selectivities in the range of 93-96% are usually achieved. 

COAL TAR AND DERIVATIVES. CAS 65996-93-2. Coal tar constitutes the major part of the liquid condensate obtained from the dry" distillation or carbonization of coal (mostly bituminous) to coke. The three inajor products of this distillation are (I) metallurgical coke. (2) gas which is suitable as a fuel after appropriate chemical treatment, and (3> condensable liquids which leave the coke oven along with the gas and which are constituted principally of ammonia liquor and coal tar. The condensable materials and gas impurities are separated from gas in the condensation and purification train of the coke oven plant. The purified coke oven gas is used as fuel in heal the coke ovens and steel producing furnaces. Prior to the widespread use of natural gas as a dnmeslic fuel, coke oven gas was widely used for this purpose after additional purification as residential fuel. 

Pure titanium is obtained commercially from rutile (Ti02) by an indirect route in which Ti02 reacts with Cl2 gas and coke to yield liquid TiCl4 (bp 136°C), which is purified by fractional distillation. Subsequent reduction to Ti metal is then carried out by reaction with molten magnesium at 900°C, and further purification is effected by melting the titanium in an electric arc under an atmosphere of argon. 

Today s coke plant gas purification processes are mostly carried out under atmospheric pressure, employing a circulated ammonia-based absorbent. The consumption of the external solvent is reduced via the use of ammonia available in the coke gas (138). An example of innovative purification processes is the ammonia hydrogen sulfide circulation scrubbing (ASCS) (Figure 17), in which the ammonia contained in the raw gas dissolves in the NH3 absorber and then the absorbent saturated with the ammonia passes through the H2S absorber to selectively absorb the H2S and HCN components from the coke gas. The next step is the thermal regeneration of the absorbent with the steam in a two-step desorption plant, whereas a part of the deaciditied water is fed back into the H2S absorber (25). 

Figure 17 Ammonia hydrogen sulfide circulation scrubbing process for the coke oven gas purification (right) and H2S absorber (left).

The dynamic behavior of the coke gas purification process has been investigated systematically (139,140,145). For instance, local perturbations of the gas load and its composition have been analyzed. A significant dynamic parameter is represented by the liquid holdup. Figure 20 demonstrates the changes of the solvent composition after a decrease of the gas-flow rate from 67 m3/h to 36.4 m3/h and a simultaneous small increase in the liquid-flow rate. 

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