Influence of Selective Crushing and Particle Shape of Shaft and Hearth Calcined Anode Coke Components on Blend Bulk Density

The bulk densityBulk density of petroleum cokePetroleum coke used for anodeAnode manufacture is important to aluminum smeltersAluminum smelter as it generally relates to anodeAnode baked density, a key anodeAnode quality parameter. CokeCoke bulk densityBulk density has been extensively studied, including previous work by BP that showed how particle shapeParticle shape is modified by different crushers, and that changes in shape influenced cokeCoke bulk densityBulk density. These laboratory studies indicated that the influence of shape on the variation in Vibrated Bulk DensityBulk density (VBD) of a range of anodeAnode filler materials was of similar magnitude as porosity. Further work showed that the VBDVBD of blends of shaft and non-shaft (Rotary hearth) calcined cokesCoke could be improved by jaw crushing the shaft cokeShaft coke in the blend. This work has been continued in further laboratory studies. The impact on VBDVBD of separately crushing the shaft and non-shaft calcined blend components using different crusher types at several particle sizeParticle size ranges has been studied. The results of this work are presented and the ability to improve cokeCoke blend quality by modifying shape through selective crushing is discussed.