Product manufactured in Sasolburg by associated company Carbon International. Calcined petroleum coke based low sulphur re-carburiser (trade name: Carbon 99) offers the local foundry market big advantages.

Just over eight years ago the Durrans Group, a UK based company with production plants in the UK, Germany, China, India, France and South Africa decided to commission a calcination plant in South Africa to produce product from high-quality calcined petroleum and pitch cokes. The innovative plant is the first of its kind to be erected in this country and in fact the first plant to be erected outside of China by the Chinese process engineering company, SAMI.

The construction of the calcination plant in the ChemCity industrial complex began once the company had obtained all the study findings and complied with the regulatory requirements. Permission was then given for Carbon International to proceed with construction of the plant by DESTEA in April 2017. The civil construction phase began in December 2017 and the fabricators commenced erection of the plant in May 2018. The company began producing product in 2019.

Carbon International Trading, a Durrans Group company, operates a vertical shaft kiln calcination plant in Sasolburg in the Free State province. Durrans RMS markets and supplies product manufactured at the plant, which is produced from high-quality calcined petroleum and pitch cokes

The initial stages of the project was project managed by Durrans RMS (a joint venture between the Durrans Group and Resistant Materials Services (Pty) Ltd) personnel to assist in procurement, administration and financial control of the project. Durrans RMS were subsequently appointed as sales agents and distributors of the beneficiated product to the foundry industry.

Carbon International operates a vertical shaft kiln calcination plant in Sasolburg in the Free State province. The plant produces a variety of high-quality calcined petroleum and pitch cokes. The vertical shaft calciner or kiln, often referred to as a “VSK”, has a calcined coke capacity of approximately fifteen thousand metric tons per annum. The company purchases green coke from various sources and then calcinates the product.

The plant has the ability to produce customised raw material blends to meet chemical and physical calcined coke properties required by a diverse spectrum of industries. Green coke material is received on site and it is then transferred to the VSK. The process of calcination involves the coke being crushed and being exposed to an indirect heat at calcining temperatures. It is then goes via the screening and bagging facility before being transferred to a storage area.

The main components of a calcination plant include a green coke delivery and storage area, a vertical shaft kiln/calciner, a calcined coke storage-silo, calcined coke crushing, screening and bagging facility and a storage area for the products of the calcination process

In other words it is the liquification or crushing of hard coal that is processed into a product that is very desirable to high-grade steel, ductile and grey iron foundries as a result of its low sulphur and nitrogen content, its excellent solubility and high carbon yield. Recarburisers serve the purpose to adjust the required carbon content in liquid metal before casting.

One of the products the shaft kiln calcination plant in Sasolburg produces is PROCARB SG, a carbon raiser used in the steel industry and by ductile and grey iron foundries.

State-of-the-art laboratory
The company has a state-of-the-art laboratory at their facilities to ensure that their product always remains in the customer requested specifications.

The petroleum coke produced by a coking unit is generally referred to as green petroleum coke. Green petroleum coke contains relatively minor concentrations of volatiles, which are removed in a calcining unit. The volatiles would be catastrophic if introduced into molten metal. The green coke is preheated in the top of the shaft kiln by rising combustion gases. In the intermediate section of the kiln, the coke is then heat soaked at calcining temperatures and finally cooled by recycled gas moving upwards from the lower part of the kiln. Cooled calcined coke is recovered from the bottom of the kiln

The laboratory can carry out a range of tests, such as, but not limited to, ash and volatile matter making use of muffle furnaces, moisture with an oven, sulphur and nitrogen with equipment and particle size distribution using a mechanical sieve shaker. There is also a laboratory scale crusher which brings the material into the correct size specification for the respective tests.

In terms of market reach, Carbon International has good market presence globally, with sales into South and North Africa, Europe, Middle East, India, South East Asia, China and the Americas. In addition, to the market reach via JDS, CIT also benefits from the broad carbon-based product portfolio offered by the group. These products find their way in a vast spectrum of industries, such as the graphite electrode manufacturing, specialty carbons and graphite’s, anode and cathode manufacturing, carbon additive for iron and steel, chemical, friction, glass, batteries, lubrication, insulation materials, conductive materials/earthing, cathodic protection, filtration and purification of vegetable oil and carbon and graphite for refractories.

For further details contact Durrans RMS on TEL: 011 917 0702, email rms@rmscc.co.za or visit www.rmsproducts.co.za or visit Carbon International Trading at www.durransgroup.com