Techno-economic assessment of petroleum coke production for carbon and graphite electrodes manufacturing

Abstract EN

The technical and economic aspects of the establishment of a delayed coking unit in the Arab world is investigated.

Such a plant is to pro- vide quality calcined coke for the production of carbon and graphite elec- trodes for the aluminum and steel Arab industries.

The Emirates and Libyan crudes, due to their low sulfur and metal con- tents (particularly vanadium and nickel), are deemed the best crudes for this purpose.

A single (on-its-own) delayed coker facility as well as a delayed coking complex are assessed.

Both types of project implementation are considered profitable but the coker complex route is considered more realistic in view of the large investments and planning requirements needed to accommo- date an independent coker inside an existing refinery.

A preliminary sensitivity analysis indicates that the coker project profita- bility is very sensitive to the hydrocarbon coproducts selling prices