Petroleum Coke Transport

[ljudice]

A couple of years ago, Deluxe offered some GCCX Bethgons with covers - for "petroleum coke service".

Most of the photos I've found of these cars taken in the 2005-present show no covers - but they are not in unit train service. Just 2-3 of them in a merchandise train. No shots look down to see the contents...

Is petroleum coke something that has to be covered?  Where is it usually being sent to?  Or did these cars end up in scrap/c&d service???

thanks,
- Lou

[C855B]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_coke

Reading through the wiki, my SWAG is that some grades of this coke are waste, and therefore don't need to be protected, like coal. Small shipments like you mentioned are more than likely refinery waste rather than being specifically manufactured for a process.

[Philip H]

I don't ever recall the pet coke in Baton Rouge ever being covered, but it was mostly making short runs to the Barge Terminal for transloading.  And every Mississippi River barge has covers, no matter the commodity.

[ljudice]

Thanks for the tips!

Say Phil, what do you see this transported in down there?

[ArtinCA]

I've seen a few of these rolling through the Valley with covers on UP trains. Yep, not the entire unit trains of past, but they are rolling out there.

BNSF used to haul coke up the valley (and probably still do) without covers. Talk about dust!

[ljudice]

Thanks Art - your blog and layout look great!

- Lou

[Philip H]

Lou,
Sadly these days its a truck transfer gig - the dock still has rails but can't take the weight of trains anymore.  Til the late 1990's it was 3 bay 70 to 100 ton hoppers - what ever KCS could get routed that way and then keep captive for the local run from Exxon to the Devil's Swamp dock.  There may have been a few early bathtub gondolas mixed in, but I don't have any shots of them.

[ArtinCA]

Thanks Art - your blog and layout look great!

Thanks Lou.. I need to update it, I've made some major changes...

[draskouasshat]

Conoco Phillips in Ponca city brings it in in a sealed coke hopper and it goes out covered. Its then shipped and used in tire mfg and other things. When its hot, it f-ing smells. We were cutting over the 3 crossings in the refinery last week and one morning they were bringing out the hot coke they had used( to filter i believe?).


Adam Draskovich
ATSF(BNSF) Signal Dept.

[bill pearce]

Petroluem coke is a byproduct of the refining process, the part of crude that can't be made into anything else. It is generally used as fuel in things like cement kilns, but I suppose it could be used in tires as an alternative to carbon black. I ssee it locally in the UP yard, coming from the refinery in McPherson. It is shipped in open three and four bay hoppers, all uncovered. Usually there are just three or four at a time. I have a friend that once dealt in commodities, one of which was pet coke, and it has so little value that it is generally sold for the cost of transportation. That's about the only thig that refineries have to through away. All that sulfer that they take out of the diesel fuel is sold to make fertillizer. Have never seen how it is shipped but I'm bettein that would be in covered gons.

[nkalanaga]

If sulfur from refineries is recovered the same way it is at smelters, it comes out as sulfuric acid, and would be shipped in tank cars.  I haven't seen any covered gons or covered hoppers at the Marathon refinery in Catlettsburg, KY, but will admit I've not looked that closely either.

One of the refineries in Billings, MT recently replaced their coking plant.  The pieces were so large it took weeks to move them across Montana from the barge terminal in Lewiston, ID, and they had to close roads and relocate utility lines to do it.  Most of the way they couldn't use the Interstates, as they couldn't go under or around the overpasses.  They went from Missoula to Billings by way of Harlowton, Lewistown, and (I think) Roundup.

[bill pearce]

The sulfur that comes out of diesel is dried and stored at the refinery in a sort of silo, so I'm still guessing covered hopper.

[nkalanaga]

OK, then it's NOT recovered as sulfuric acid or molten sulfur.  In that case I'd agree with you that it probably goes by covered hopper.