Japan imported coking coals

Japan imports coking coals from the United States, Canada, Australia and many other foreign countries. Future supplies of coking coals involves some uncertainty relative to procurement of good-quality coals in sufficient quantities. Various measures have been examined to solve this problem in Japan, One such measure is the expansion of the scope of raw materials used for coke-making. 

Coke production was formerly the most important demonstrated technology associated with the direct production of chemicals from coal. Industrial chemicals currently obtained in significant amounts as coke byproducts include benzene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene, anthracene, phenanthrene, phenol, ammonia, ammonium sulfate, sulfitr, and carbon dioxide. The vast majority of aromatics production from coal occurs in Eastern Europe, India, and Japan.75... 

T he carbon electrodes used in the production of aluminum by the Hall-Heroult process normally are produced from a combination of calcined coke and a pitch binder. While coal tar pitch traditionally has been used as the binder in electrode fabrication, variations in methods of production and the diversity of sources of supply result in variations in pitch quality. In addition, some locations in North America import pitch from areas such as Europe and Japan. With the desire for a more consistent quality product and more accessible sources of supply, alternative methods of producing binder pitch have been sought. This has led to a number of studies in the production of binder pitch from petroleum-derived materials (1-5). In these developments, the preferred feedstock... 

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