TO STUDY ABOUT SAFETY INTERLOCKS OF COG

EXHAUSTERS AND BOOSTERS

Shubham Pandey | [Course Title] | [Date]

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INTRODUCTION TO TATA STEEL

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COKE PLANT
Coke is used as a fuel and as a reducing agent in smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. In the coke
ovens, naturally found coal is converted into coke which is suitable for use in blast furnaces.
The coke oven by-product plant is an integral part of the by-product coke making process. In the
process of converting coal into coke using the by-product coke oven, the Coke Oven Gas, tar,
ammonia, naphthalene, etc. are produced as by product.
Sections of Coke Plant are:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Coal Handling
Batteries
Coke handling
By Product Plant

1) Coal Handling:Coal is brought from Jharia, Jamadoba, West Bokaro and imported from Australia. This coal is
normally unloaded by wagon tipplers. To prepare coal blend suitable for carbonization, various
steps involved are unloading and storage of coal, blending of coal of various grade, coal crushing
and transport to coal storage tower.
2) Batteries:Coking is a process of heating the coal, resulting in a solid, porous, and carbonized residue, together
with the evolution of a certain number of volatile products that escape the coking chamber. The
process of carbonization takes place in batteries. There are
batteries in operation.
Battery#
battery#
Battery#
Battery#
Battery#

The batteries have employed new technology for charging the raw coal into ovens namely Stamp
Charging using SCP machines (stamping, charging and pushing) in order to obtain high output of
coke and of improved quality.
The role of SCP ( Stamping charging pushing ) machines is pivotal in COKE PRODUCTION
unit .

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3) Coke handling:Coke handling involves crushing and sorting of coke to suitable size for use in blast furnace. The steps
involved are coke pushing, coke quenching, coke crushing/ screening.
As per requirement, the various sizes of coal required are as follows:
BLAST FURNACE COKE
NUT COKE
PEARL COKE
COKE BREEZE

4) By Product Plant:The coke oven by-product plant is an integral part of the by-product coke making process. In the
process of converting coal into coke using the by-product coke oven, the volatile matter in the coal
is vaporized and driven off. This volatile matter leaves the coke oven chambers as hot, raw coke
oven gas. After leaving the coke oven chambers, the raw coke oven gas is cooled which results in a
liquid condensate stream and a gas stream. The functions of the by-product plant are to take these
two streams from the coke ovens, to process them to recover by-product coal chemicals and to
condition the gas so that it can be used as a fuel gas.
COAL RECEIVED
FROM WAGON
TIPPLERS

COAL BLENDING

COAL
CRUSHING(PRIMA
RY AND
SECONDARY)

SERVICE BUNKER

SCP MACHINES
BLAST FURNACE

GAS CLEANING BY
NH3 &
NAPTHALENE
SCRUBBER

COKE QUENCHING

GAS
EXHAUSTER

ELECTROSTA
TIC TAR
PRECIPITATO
R

COKE OVENS

STAMPING
CHARGING
PUSHING

PCDC

BOOSTER

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BY PRODUCT PLANT
In order to make raw coke oven gas suitable for use as a fuel gas at the coke oven battery and
elsewhere in the steelmaking facility the by-product plant must:

Cool the coke oven gas to condense out water vapor and contaminants
Remove tar aerosols to prevent gas line/equipment fouling
Remove ammonia to prevent gas line corrosion
Remove naphthalene to prevent gas line fouling by condensation
To supply clean gas at desired pressure to all consumers like gas grid
Water treatment of byproducts before releasing to atmosphere according to government norms

CHILLED WATER

FROM BATTERIES

PCDC

ETP
EXHAUSTER HOUSE

NAPTHALENE
SCRUBBER

NH3 SCRUBBER

BOOSTER HOUSE

TO GAS MILLS,
GAS GRID, ETC.

GAS
HOLDER

SCHEMATIC LAYOUT OF BY PRODUCT PLANT

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OVERVIEW OF BY PRODUCT PLANT:During carbonization, coal is converted to coke in coke oven batteries. The exhauster coke oven
gas produced is laden with impurities which makes it difficult to use as a fuel. Raw gas has to subject
to a process of cleaning before it can be put into steel plants gas grid. Coal tar, naphthalene and
ammonia are the three impurities which are removed in coke oven gas processing plant. Besides
these chemicals, moisture, hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen are removed.
The gas cleaning process at our byproduct plant is designed to handle on average of 1, 11,000 Nm3
/hr. of coke oven gas. The exhauster, primary cum deep cooler and scrubbers can process coke oven
gas peaks up to 1, 35,000 Nm3 /hr.
The crude gas coming out from the ovens at 850C is cooled to 80 C by spraying flushing liquor.
The temperature of this gas is a very important controlling factor for the processes downstream.
This is to be monitored and controlled very rigidly.
The gases through foul main goes to the primary-cum-deep coolers (PCDCs) where temp. drops
from 80C to 22C.
The main objectives of cooling the gas are:
1) Reducing the volume of the gas and thus decreasing load on downstream units.
2) Separating impurities by condensing them.
3) Facilitate the subsequent leaning of the gas through scrubbers (Absorption and adsorption of
gases are favored at low temperature
1) PRIMARY CUM DEEP COOLERS:The first step in the treatment of raw coke oven gas is to cool it to remove water vapor and so
greatly reduce its volume. This is done in the Primary Cooler. The lowering in temperature is
caused by indirect cooling by water. Due to lowering in gas temperature from 80C to 22C. 98% of
total tar is separated out of the gases 8.0-9096 of total naphthalene also condenses in PCDCs.
A PCDC looks like a vertical box with rectangular cross-section. As the name suggests, this box is
divided into two zones-namely the primary cooling zone and the deep cooling zone. We have thin
tubes fixed horizontally all along the height of the PCDC through which water flows. The gases
coming into the PCDC enter from the top of this rectangular box. These gases come indirectly into
the contact with the gases flowing in thin tubes, thus causing heat transfer from gas to water,
resulting in a temperature decrease in gas. The gas pressure at the top of PCDCs is about -120 to
-130 mm of WC. There is a pressure drop of about 70 mm of WC across the PCDCs.
As indicated before, a PCDC is divided into two zones. The two zones are primary cooling zone
and the deep cooling zone. There is no physical difference between the designs of these two zones.
The only difference is that in the primary cooling zone, the gas cooling is achieved by service water,
whereas in the deep cooling zone, the gas cooling is achieved by refrigerated water. The purpose

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of deep cooling is to remove bulk of naphthalene from gas and remaining uncondensed tar and
liquor. The rate of reversal of naphthalene into solid phase directly from vapour phase is very
significant below 35C.
2) ELECTROSTATIC TAR PRECIPITATOR:As the raw coke oven gas is cooled, tar vapor condenses and forms aerosols which are carried along
with the gas flow. These tar particles would contaminate and foul downstream processes and would
foul gas lines and burner nozzles if allowed to continue in the gas stream.
Each ETP is equipped with tubes or honey comb for the passage of gas. Within each cell of honey
comb, wires are suspended through the insulated system from the top. Each wire has weigh
attached to the bottom end to keep the wire taut. The wires in the tar precipitators typically use
high voltage electrodes to charge the tar particles and then collect them from the gas by means of
electrostatic attraction. The tar precipitators can be installed before, or after the exhauster.
3) EXHAUSTERS:The exhauster is a large blower that provides the motive force to induce the coke oven gas to flow
from the coke oven battery and through the by-product plant. They suck the gas from the batteries
and boost it to a higher pressure. An exhauster is a high speed centrifugal machine which is coupled
with a steam driven turbine. The exhauster is of prime importance to the operation of the coke
oven battery. It allows the close control of the gas pressure in the collecting main, which in turn
affects the degree of emissions from the battery. A failure of the exhauster will immediately result
in venting to atmosphere, through the battery flares, of all of the raw coke oven gas produced.
The speed of the exhauster is controlled by PG-PL governor which can be controlled manually or
pneumatically by the governor. At TATA STEEL, usually 3 exhausters are run at a time while 1 runs
idle. The governor which is not on load is not stopped. Instead, it is made to run at idle speed of
1000 R.P.M., to avoid any tar deposition and blockage of impellers.
PARAMETERS TO BE CONTINUOUSLY MEASURED ARE:
Suction pressure before PCDC
-120 to -130 mm of WC
R.P.M.
3000 to 4000 R.P.M.
Steam pressure to the turbine
12-15 kg/cm2
Delivery pressure after exhauster

The coke oven gas sent by exhauster comes to scrubbing unit for cleaning purpose. Pre scrubbing
would help in reducing the gas temperature also. It is done by flushing liquor.

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4) AMMONIA SCRUBBING:Because of the corrosive nature of ammonia, its removal is a priority in coke oven by-product plants.
The gas is scrubbed in a series of hollow cylindrical columns, where we spray stripped liquor on
the gas directly in a stage wise fashion. There are 3 such scrubbers, each divided into 4 stages. Thus,
there are total 12 stages of scrubbing, resulting in the final concentration of ammonia in the gas
below 4g/100 Nm3. The resulting rich liquor solution is pumped to an ammonia still where steam
is used to strip out the ammonia. The resulting vapor released from ammonia still is incinerated in
ammonia incinerator.
5) NAPHTHALENE SCRUBBING:The temperature of the gas goes down after it comes from the ammonia scrubbers. Naphthalene
being a highly sublime substance starts condensing directly in solid form as the temperature of the
gas further goes down. After PCDC and ETP, this level goes down to 80-100 g/Nm3. If naphthalene
is not removed. It will cause unwanted deposition and choking of downstream gas for
uninterrupted operation of the plant. Naphthalene is removed from coke oven gas using wash oil
in a gas scrubbing vessel. The coke oven gas is passed through a series of naphthalene scrubbers,
in which the gas rises from bottom to top facing wash oil being sprayed from a number of nozzles
at the top. The vessel may be packed or it may be the "void" type in which the wash oil is sprayed
into the gas in several stages. The wash oil is regenerated by stripping out the naphthalene from
the wash oil using steam in a still. After 3 stages, we have pure CO gas with naphthalene below 12
g/Nm3.
6) BOOSTER OPERATION:The objective of booster operation is to send the coke oven gas to consuming ends like mills by
boosting up its pressure. It is also a high speed centrifugal machine similar to an exhauster machine,
which boosts the pressure of coke oven gas, which is a main fuel in the reheating furnaces of most
of the mills. The major difference between an exhauster and booster machine is the suction and
delivery side pressures. The exhauster has a negative suction pressure and positive delivery
pressure whereas, the booster has positive suction and delivery pressures.
The pressure of gas after last naphthalene scrubber is 300 mm of WC, and is not sufficient for gas
to reach the different consuming ends. Thus, we boost the gas pressure to about 1000-1200 mm of
WC, so that it can reach different mills situated at distant locations. There are 3 boosters, out of
which 2 run at a time while 1 runs idle. Thus cleaned gas passes through booster and gas holder in
the circuit ensures stable pressure of coke oven gas in the gas circuit.

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COKE OVEN GAS EXHAUSTERS AND BOOSTERS

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