Met coke production, part 2 of 2
The final product is a non-melting carbon, which is called metallurgical coke or met coke. After partial melting and loosing volatile gases, metallurgical coke has a porous, open morphology and in some specimens it may appear glassy. Thanks to the heating process Met coke has hardly no volatile contents, however the “ash” constituents, which were the part of the original bituminous coal feedstock, remain encapsulated in the resultant coke. Metallurgical coke feedstocks are available in a really wide range of sizes – from fine powder to basketball-sized lumps. Typical purities range from eighty eight to ninety two percent fixed carbon.
Commercial grades are widely available in sizes from powders (30 micrometer size) to lumps (20 centimeter size). Metallurgical coke is used where a tough and resilient, high quality wearing carbon is needed. Met coke’s applications include for example: friction materials, conductive flooring, foundry coatings, corrosion materials, foundry carbon raiser, reducing agents, drilling applications, ceramic packing media, heat-treatment, oxygen exclusion and electrolytic processes. Of course, these applications listed above are not only ones – metallurgical coke can be used in dozens processes.