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- Coking Coal
- PCI - Pulverised Coal Injection
- Blast Furnace coke
- Foundry coke
- Nut coke
- Coke breeze
Thermal Coal
Following the second oil crisis in the late 1970s, there was a tremendous resurgence in the demand for thermal coal on the international energy market. By 2000, the sea-borne trade had grown to about 336 million tons and today it is over 500 million tons with further increases expected into the future.
Although the United States is no longer a major exporter of thermal coal, its production capacity is enormous, and it therefore retains the potential to participate when necessary.
In Poland and Russia, coal production and exports are diminishing, as is the case in Germany and the rest of Western Europe.
At the same time established producers, such as those in Australia and South Africa, have increased their productivity and exports.
Relative newcomers to the market, like Indonesia during the 1980s and Colombia and Venezuela during the 1990s, are thriving.
Methallurgical Coal
Metallurgical coal is the description used for coals that have the necessary physical and chemical characteristics to be used in the steelmaking industry.
Coking Coal:
Approximately 70% of the world's steel production is dependent on coking coal.
The principal application is in the making of blast furnace coke through carbonisation.
In assessing its suitability for steel production, it is important to take into account such characteristics as ash, volatile matter, the sulphurus and phosphorus content of the coal, swelling indices, dilatation, fluidity and reflectance.
Advanced petrographic-analysis makes it possible to "fingerprint" individual coal, right down to the seam where it was mined.
PCI - Pulverised Coal Injection:
Since the 1920s, steel companies have been exploring the use of alternative fuels in their blast furnaces and in 1964 a US company installed the first injection equipment to use pulverised coal in a traditional furnace.
Today this technology, known as PCI (Pulverised Coal Injection) has gained worldwide acceptance due mainly to its low ash and phosphorus content.
Anthracite
Anthracite is the final product in the coalification process and is considered to be the highest rank of coal.
This superior fuel is smokeless and combines high fixed carbon with low volatility.
It has both domestic (sized anthracite) and industrial uses in power plants, cement and briquette production, and in the steel industry.
Methallurgical Coke
Metallurgical coke comes in various forms:
Blast Furnace Coke:
This coke is used mainly in the blast furnaces of steel mills and is the largest traded coke by volume.
It is produced in beehive and slot-oven batteries in Japan, several countries in Europe, and elsewhere.
But China is the largest producer and exporter.
Foundry Coke:
Used mainly in the foundry industry.
Nut Coke:
A smaller sized coke, screened from either blast furnace or foundry coke, it is used in smelters and in the production of ferro-alloys.
Coke Breeze:
A fine sized coke, used mostly for sintering by steel mills.
Petroleum Coke
Petroleum coke (petcoke) is a carbonaceous solid residual by-product of the oil refining coking process with over 60 million tons produced annually worldwide.
The purpose of a "coker" is to dispose of the residual oil and increase the yield of high value light products such as gasoline and jet fuel.
There are three different types of petcoke produced, fluid, needle and delayed, which account for almost all of the world's petcoke production.
Over 75% of the petcoke produced is considered to be fuel grade and has about 15% higher heating value than coal.
Bulk Trading sources petcoke globally and enjoys sound relationships with major petcoke producers such as BP, ExxonMobil, Conoco Philipps and Valero in the United States, Petrozuata in Venezuela as well as various producers in Europe, Russia and China.
The company's petcoke sourcing staff works in close co-operation with its branch offices around the world to provide the best possible service to refiners and consumers.
The cement industry is the major consumer of fuel grade petcoke, using over 60% of the world's annual production.
Bulk Trading supplies petcoke to the world's leading cement companies, including Holcim and Italcementi, as well as to major utilities and various industrial consumers around the world.
WORLD PETCOKE PRODUCTION
Biomass (Activated carbon)
Biomass is a renewable energy resource derived from the carbonaceous waste of various human and natural activities.
It is derived from numerous sources, including the by-products from the timber industry, agricultural crops, raw material from the forest, major parts of household waste and wood.
Its advantage is that it can be used to generate electricity with the same equipment or power plants that are now burning fossil fuels.
There are many different kinds of biomass fuels - from the traditional fuelwood used for cooking in a very inefficient way, to very sophisticated modern biofuels which are produced from purposely grown biomass.
The main contributor of biomass in palm oil industry are: empty fruit bunches (EFB), Palm oil mill effluent (POME), mesocarp fiber, palm kernel shells and palm kernel cake (residue).
Palm Kernel Shells:
Palm Oil (Elais Guinensis) comes in three varieties: Hard, Pesiphera and Tender produces an edible fruit that is contained in bunches which are called Fresh Fruit Bunches.
The individual fruit of Oil Palm, similar to a small apricot, has an outerƒ∆ flesh that contains a stone composed of a wooden shell outside, called Shell, which in its turn contains a seed called Kernel.
During the production process to obtain palm oil, the fruit is removed from the flesh by means of a simple boiling process.
The cores leftover will be shattered mechanically for the purpose of extracting its seeds; the shells shattered take the name of Palm Kernel Shells, whose acronym is PKS and can have as well the name of Palm Nut Shells, whose acronym isPNS
The shattered shells by Palm Oil Fruit (called Palm Kernel Shells) is a biomass that has the feature to possess a raised calorific value that, together with its other physical-chemical characteristics truly peculiar, makes it into a useable fuel in dedicated plants or, without any interventions on facilities, mixed with coal in a traditional thermo-electrical station for co-combustion.
The use of PKS as combustible being derived from "Renewable Source" for the production of electric energy in mixture with coal carries unquestionable environmental advantages.
The first, and obvious, is relevant to the Protocol of Kyoto, to which Italy is a signatory. The utilization as combustible of a biomass from renewable source with raised calorific value, reduces the utilization of a quantity of fossil fuel with consequent clean production of energy according to a simple equation:
+ PKS = - COAL.
Bulk Trading has direct contact with Palm Oil producers, important for obtaining both exclusivity and quality products. PKS is stored and then loaded in large quantities for delivery directly to our customers.
Biomass energy is an alternative energy source that has gained in popularity over the last ten years. It is derived from any sort of vegetation - trees, grasses, plant parts such as leaves, stems and twigs, and ocean plants. From it, one can extract a wealth of stored energy.
During photosynthesis, plants combine carbon dioxide from the air and water from the ground to form carbohydrates, which form the building blocks of biomass. The solar energy that drives photosynthesis is stored in the chemical bonds of the structural components of biomass. While the actual ratio of components varies among species, biomass averages 75% carbohydrates or sugars and 25% lignin.
If one were to burn biomass efficiently (which extracts the energy stored in the chemical bonds), then oxygen from the atmosphere combines with the carbon in plants to produce carbon dioxide and water.
Biomass can produce electricity, heat, liquid fuels, gaseous fuels, and a variety of useful chemicals, including those currently manufactured from fossil fuels.
Industry and agriculture need superior energy crops and cost-effective conversion technologies to expand the use of renewable biomass.
Biomass is available from various industries including agriculture, forest products, transportation, and construction - that dispose of large quantities of wood and plant products.
Whether cultivated or growing wild, biomass represents a huge renewable energy source.
Biomass-generated electricity is another active area of research and production.
Biomass electricity is typically generated through boiler/steam turbine plants, but with three key differences: the fuel is renewable, there is less than 0.1% sulfur (an acid rain ingredient) in biomass fuels, and less air pollutants are produced.
More specific environmental benefits for biomass power are:
- Reduced Sulfur Dioxide Emissions
- Reduced Carbon Emissions
- Reducing Other Emissions
- Reduced Odors