Impact of transportation on foundry coke quality

Abstract

The quality metrics of foundry coke are determined by testing at coke plants. Foundry coke consumers are foundry enterprises which are usually located far from the coke plants. Foundry coke is transported in bulk in open railway wagons. Therefore, this paper is aimed to determine the impact of transportation on the quality of foundry coke. The test conditions were as close as possible to real life conditions of foundry coke transportation. To estimate the impact of transportation distance we introduced the destruction index Pт (%). The results of experimental studies have shown that the destruction of foundry coke is not the same at different intervals of transportation. When transporting up to 300 km, the coke with the minimum durability index M40 is destroyed. When the distance is increased from 900 km up to 2500 km, the foundry coke destruction index (Pт , %) increases by 2.08 – 3.02 % depending on the batch. For all batches, a size fraction of less than 40 mm was noted depending on the durability index M40 from 0.25 to 1.41 %. The size fraction of more than 80 mm stays the same for foundry coke with higher durability indices. When the air humidity rises by 40 % during transportation, the amount of moisture in the coke samples of a 40 – 60 mm size fraction is more than 24 times higher than usual, a 60 – 80 mm size fraction – more than 17 times, an 80 mm and larger – more than 10 times. When the air humidity decreases by 34 %, the amount of moisture in a gram of coke of a 40 – 60 mm size fraction becomes 2 times lower than usual, a 60 – 80 mm size fraction – 1.26 times, an 80 mm and larger – 1.45 times. Compared to coke of size fractions 60 – 80 mm and 80 mm and larger, the moisture of the 40 – 60 mm size fraction coke grows faster when the air humidity increases as well.