What is coke?
Metallurgical coke is used to make steel. Coke goes in a blast furnace with iron ore and limestone, which are melted into iron. In that process, the coke primarily acts as a reducing agent to remove oxygen from iron ore.
Coke is made from metallurgical grade coal, which is different from normal coal used for power plants because of its chemistry and ash content.
A coke plant makes coke by heating coal at high temperatures in an oven until the material that’s left is almost all carbon. Coke looks a lot like coal, but it’s porous and tends to be grey. It’s similar to charcoal used in a grill, but it’s made from coal instead of wood and it’s shape is more irregular chunks of material.
Source: Bruce Steiner, president of the American Coal and Coke Chemicals Institute
SunCoke Energy’s Middletown Operations is the fourth coke plant since 2005 that SunCoke Energy has designed, built and operated in the United States.
The SunCoke plants in Franklin Furnace, Ohio; Granite City, Ill.; and Middletown are the only new coke plants built in the past six years in the U.S., and are the only plants to use a process that converts waste heat to steam and electricity for energy, according to the American Coal and Coke Chemicals Institute.
SunCoke also operates coke plants in Brazil, Virginia and Indiana.
“This is one more step in continued growth in the company and to continue to build our relationship with AK Steel,” said Mike White, SunCoke Energy vice president of operations. “Our intention is to continue to grow our business. We do intend to build more plants and certainly AK Steel and other customers could be potential opportunities for that.”
SunCoke’s model is to build coke plants next to its steelmaker customers and sign longterm supply agreements with the customers, including AK Steel, U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal.
The company says it has become the largest independent producer of metallurgical coke in the Americas, with the capacity to produce approximately 5.9 million tons of coke annually once Middletown comes online this month. Coke is made from coal and is used to make steel, according to the Coke and Coal Chemicals Institute.
Traditional coke plants are by-product plants, extracting materials from the waste gas such as tar, said Bruce Steiner, president of the Coal and Coke Institute.
Until now, SunCoke has grown in the Americas from increased demand and from replacing aging coke oven batteries, according to the company. In the future, SunCoke sees its growth from increased demand for steel in emerging global markets, such as China and India. China and the rest of Asia are the world’s largest producers of steel and consumers of coke, according to SunCoke.
During the construction of its newest coke plant on Yankee Road in Middletown, SunCoke Energy moved its headquarters from Knoxville, Tenn., to Lisle, Ill.; went public and issued an initial public offering; hired a new management team; prepared for a spinoff from its parent company Sunoco Inc.; and submitted an application for a permit for a new seventh plant in Kentucky.
White said the location hasn’t been finalized for a new plant and they’re still considering Ohio. But the early plan for the new plant is to have extra capacity to sell coke to other customers in addition to a customer contract, said Anna Rozenich, spokeswoman for SunCoke.
SunCoke has also signed a memo of understanding with an Indian coke company for a minority investment, Rozenich said. SunCoke builds local knowledge and relationships and the Indian company can leverage SunCoke’s operational expertise, she said.
The Middletown project has been SunCoke’s longest from the time of permitting to the start of construction, White said. The project was delayed more than a year due to SunCoke applying for a second more stringent New Source Review air permit in response to environmental concerns.
However, the plant is SunCoke’s smallest by number of coke ovens. The Middletown plant has 100 ovens. Another plant in Franklin Furnace has 100 ovens, but it’s one of two plants on the same site. A plant in Indiana Harbor, Ind., is the largest, with 268 ovens, according to the company.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.
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