Petroleum coke has made significant developments in the steam coal industry over the last few years and will continue to do so for a variety of reasons. Paramount among them is that pet coke can serve as an excellent, inexpensive product to blend with coal in traditional coal fired boilers, and in some newer boilers, can even replace coal entirely.

Petroleum coke is a byproduct of the Coker refinery process which upgrades fuel oil by heating it and cracking it to higher valued gasoline, jet and diesel components.

Generally there is lower ash (<0.5%), lower moisture (8-10%) and lower Volatiles (8-10%) than steam coal, resulting in a much higher heating value, on the order of 14,000 Btu/lb. There is generally higher sulfur, ranging from about 4 % to 7. Most coke produced is fuel grade, meaning it competes with coal.

UGE is able to offer very competitive discounted rates for this product due to the fact that production costs associated with pet coke are considerably low because it is a byproduct of the refining process.

Our most prominent top clients are cement plants and power plants. There is some limited use as space heating and in commercial brick kilns in Europe, and a small but emerging market for met coal blending component for the steel industry. While the higher sulfur may limit the coke in a coal and pet coke blend in a plant designed for coal, more recently designed Circulating Fluidized Bed boilers can burn 100% high sulfur coke.

Advantages of Petroleum Coke:

• Inexpensive in production
• Cleaner bio product