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Petroleum Coke: Crude Oil Residue Coked in a Delayed Coker and Calcined
Charlie

Created by

Charlie

17. October 2026DE
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Petroleum Coke: Crude Oil Residue Coked in a Delayed Coker and Calcined

Petroleum coke is the solid carbon left from the heaviest part of crude oil. A refinery distils crude oil, then distils the residue again under vacuum, heats what is still left to about 480–505 °C and lets it crack in a coke drum. The drum fills with green coke in 12 to 24 hours; it is cut out with a water jet and calcined in a rotary kiln. Calcined coke feeds synthetic graphite and carbon anodes. The picture: our diagram of the route from crude oil to calcined coke.
Advanced
A day per coke drum

Instructions

1

Distil the crude oil

Distil crude oil in an atmospheric column, slightly above atmospheric pressure. Draw off the lighter cuts, among them naphtha (boiling between about 30 and 200 °C), and keep the residue from the bottom, which boils above 370–380 °C.

Materials for this step:

Crude OilCrude Oil1 t

Tools needed:

Atmospheric Distillation ColumnAtmospheric Distillation Column
2

Distil the residue under vacuum

Distil that residue again at 10–40 mmHg absolute so it stays below 370–380 °C. The heavy bottoms left are the vacuum residue.

Tools needed:

Vacuum Distillation ColumnVacuum Distillation Column
Vacuum PumpVacuum Pump
3

Heat and fill the coke drum

Pump the vacuum residue through the coker furnace to about 480–505 °C, with steam in the tubes, into a coke drum. It cracks there: gas oil and lighter parts leave as vapour and coke builds up in the drum, which fills in 12 to 24 hours.

Tools needed:

Delayed CokerDelayed Coker
WaterWater
4

Quench and cut out

Switch the feed to the second drum. Steam out the full drum, fill it with water, wait several hours and drain it. Cut the coke out with a high-pressure water jet. This is green coke.

Tools needed:

Delayed CokerDelayed Coker
WaterWater
5

Calcine

Calcine the green coke in a rotary kiln at about 1300 °C to drive off the remaining volatile hydrocarbons.

Tools needed:

Rotary KilnRotary Kiln
6

Coke from a tonne of residue

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Materials

1

Tools Required

6

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