Equipment · draft · confidence 0.88
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A bank of 20–100 individual slot-type coke oven chambers built side by side with shared walls, used to carbonize coking coal into metallurgical coke. The dominant modern form is the horizontal by-product slot oven battery: each chamber is approximately 15–20 m long, 6–9 m high, and 450–600 mm wide, alternating with heating flues that burn coke oven gas (COG) to maintain oven temperature at 900–1,100°C. Individual chambers are charged, carbonized (15–18 hours), and pushed in sequence so the battery operates continuously and delivers a steady flow of coke and COG.
Common substitutes
- Beehive coke oven (historical, no byproduct recovery)
- Non-recovery / heat-recovery coke oven (modern alternative where byproduct markets are weak)
Function
High-temperature carbonization of coking coal in an inert (reducing) atmosphere to drive off volatile matter and produce metallurgical coke. In by-product batteries, volatile-rich raw COG is collected for byproduct recovery; in non-recovery (heat-recovery) batteries the volatiles are burned to generate steam.
Hazards
- Coke oven emissions — leaks from doors, lids, and offtake pipes expose workers to carcinogenic PAHs, benzene, and HCN.
- COG fire and explosion — leaks of hydrogen-rich COG in enclosed areas create explosion risk.
- Refractory failure — thermal cycling over decades degrades silica brickwork; oven repairs require hot-repair or cold-rebuild procedures under specialized conditions.
Materials of construction
- Silica refractory brick (oven walls and roof — high thermal stability, low thermal expansion at operating temperature)
- Fireclay refractory (some zones)
- Cast iron or steel door frames and oven hardware
Scale
Industrial: batteries of 20–100 chambers, each producing ~20–30 tonnes of coke per push. A typical integrated steel plant operates 2–6 batteries with combined annual capacity of 0.5–3 Mt coke/year.
Connections
Outgoing
- Has hazard → Coke Oven Emissions — Coke oven batteries are the primary source of coke oven emissions; leak points include doors, charging lids, offtake pipes, and cracks in aged refractory.
Incoming
- Requires equipment ← Cokemaking — The coke oven battery is the central equipment for carbonization. Modern by-product slot oven batteries of 20-100 chambers each ~15-20 m long × 6-9 m high × 450-600 mm wide, alternating with heating flues.