Basic study on separate charge of coal and waste plastics in coke oven chamber

Nippon Steel Corporation started to operate a waste plastic recycling process using coke ovens at Nagoya and Kimitsu Works in 2000 and at Yawata and Muroran Works in 2002. Now the total capacity is 120,000 tons per year and the recycling process is operating smoothly. In this process, coals and added plastics are carbonized and changed into coke, tar, oil and coke oven gas in a coke oven chamber. At present, upper limit of the addition rate of waste plastics to blended coals is 1% so that the plastic addition does not affect coke strength. However, the amount of waste plastics in Japan is as much as about 10 million tons per year and there is a real need for increasing the amount of waste plastics treated by the waste plastic recycling process using coke ovens. We investigated a method of increasing the addition rate of waste plastics without affecting coke strength by charging coal and plastic separately in a coke oven chamber. In the case of the same plastic addition rate, charging the plastic in the bottom or the top part of the coke oven chamber can decrease the deterioration of coke strength compared with charging a homogeneous mixture of coal and plastic. Charging the plastic in the bottom decreases the coke strength to a greater extent than charging the plastic in the top. This is because the decomposition of the plastic charged in the bottom decreases the bulk density of the upper coal layer. The results suggest that charging the coal and waste plastics separately increases the amount of waste plastics treated in the waste plastic recycling process using coke ovens. In order to commercialize this method, further studies are necessary concerning the charging method, device and the effect of this method on the coke oven operation.