Negative impacts of petroleum coke as an energy source in the brick-making industry

Abstract

The technical features of the issues caused by the brick industry's usage of petroleum coke as a fuel were identified in this study. The effects were evaluated in terms of the concentration of hazardous materials in petroleum coke, the CO2, SO2 and NOx emissions in the flue gases, the corrosion of refractory materials in the furnace, the corrosion of pipelines and metal structures in the dryer and furnace, the deposition of sulfate scum on dry products, and the fixation of white scum on finished products. To assess the microstructure and composition of the regions of the samples exposed to flue gases and that inside the material, refractory brick samples from the furnace walls were examined under a microscope. The compressive stress of the part of the sample affected by the flue gas from the kiln is lowered by 37.3 %, which is caused by the agglomeration of sulfate salts and the presence of a high quantity of vanadium. It was determined that, regardless of potential energy savings, the sulfur concentration in petroleum coke must be below 5% if utilized as an energy source in the brick sector since there are suitable conditions for accelerated corrosion processes.