We get questions

The Centre for Energy’s portal is loaded with factual and statistical information about Canada’s energy system. But we still get questions, like this one.

Q:  What is petroleum coke and how is it used?

A: Petroleum coke is a black, solid residue comprising 90 per cent carbon that results primarily from cracking or breaking down large, heavy petroleum feedstocks such as bitumen. It can be:

• pulverized and used as fuel in lime kilns and recovery boilers in kraft pulp mills to replace natural gas and reduce fuelling costs
• processed to produce activated carbon for treating produced water from oil sand facilities, and other novel applications
• gasified to produce ‘syngas’ for use in heavy oil upgrading, production of steam and hot water for enhanced oil recovery and bitumen processing, and fuelling of lime kilns and boilers in pulp mills