Calcined Petroleum Coke
Basetrade Global supplies Calcined Petroleum Coke (CPC) to aluminium and steel smelters worldwide.
The company goes to great lengths to ensure that every consignment is independently inspected and tested prior to shipment, assuring its quality and readiness for delivery. Basetrade Global ships CPC of various grades and specifications globally and welcomes inquiries from manufacturers wishing to procure certain and secure supplies of Calcined Petroleum Coke (CPC).
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CPC is a by-product of the oil-refining process. Crude oil is run through a furnace and then passed through a column in which fractional distillation of the compound takes place. By this process, crude oil is separated into its component parts, or fractions, when it is heated intensely. Crude oil’s fractions vaporize across a range of temperatures, enabling their separate collection for refining, as shown above. Green petroleum coke is produced from the heaviest fractions of crude oil’s distillation by the process known as thermal cracking.
By further severe heating in coking drums, the molecular structures of those very heavy hydrocarbon residues of fractional distillation are broken up (or cracked) and simplified into lighter distillates, of which green petroleum coke is one. Green petroleum coke with a low metal content, known as anode grade coke, then undergoes a calcining process to produce CPC.
Anode grade coke is treated by thermal decomposition at temperatures below its melting point to remove moisture and volatile combustible matter. This process, known as calcination, thus improves the coke’s critical physical properties such as its electrical conductivity, real density and oxidation characteristics.
The result is a high-grade and very pure carbon product that can then be used to manufacture carbon anodes for aluminium smelting, or for furnace products during steel smelting.
When combined with coal tar pitch Calcined Petroleum Coke (CPC) as the main (circa 85%) component part of anodes, CPC can be used in opposition to carbon cathodes to create an electrolytic environment when smelting metal ores.
The aluminium smelting process is begun when Cr-oxide is introduced to bauxite (aluminum ore). Al₂O₃ (alumina) is formed out of the reaction between bauxite and Cr-oxide.
In an electrolyzed environment illustrated above, liquid electrolyte (3) is heated between positively charged pre-baked CPC-CTP anodes (1) and negatively charged carbon cathodes encased in steel (2). Fluorinated alumina (4) is added to the heated liquid electrolyte. When an electric current is passed between the pre-baked anodes (1) and the steel-encased cathodes (2) it causes the anodes to release their carbon content. That carbon combines with the oxygen in alumina to form carbon dioxide (CO₂). Molten aluminum remains (5), after CO₂ is created, which collects at the bottom of the cell, Al₂O₃ → 6Al + 3CO₂.
About 450kgs of pre-baked anode are consumed to produce one tonne of primary aluminium. Each CPC-CTP anode has a lifespan of just twenty to twenty-five days. By contrast, carbon cathodes can last between 1,500 and 3,500 days.
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