Coke

The intensity of much publicised cola wars are often explicit mostly in the urban markets of developed countries and do not look into the rural areas where distribution is complex than cities. The objective of the paper is to analyse the effect of distribution efficiency in the rural marketing efforts of the Cola giants, Pepsi and Coke. The research covered the rural hamlets in Coimbatore region of Tamilnadu in South India where both the cola majors have a prominent distribution network owing to the hot weather conditions. The data was collected mainly from the owners of 356 retail outlets and their customers spreading over 76 villages. Analysis was done region wise as well as outlet wise to know the distribution efficiency of these companies and identified the gaps in servicing the rural pockets .Pepsi is better off in rural distribution mainly due to its efficient line servicing in rural areas when compared to Coke.

Coal fly ashes (CFA) are generated in large amounts worldwide. Current combustion technologies allow the burning of fuels with high sulfur content such as petroleum coke, generating non-CFA, such as petroleum coke fly ash (PCFA), mainly from fluidized bed combustion processes. The disposal of CFA and PCFA fly ashes can have severe impacts in the environment such as a potential groundwater contamination by the leaching of heavy metals and/or particulate matter emissions; making it necessary to treat or reuse them. At present CFA are utilized in several applications fields such as cement and concrete production, agriculture and soil stabilization. However, their reuse is restricted by the quality parameters of the end-product or requirements defined by the production process. Therefore, secondary material markets can use a limited amount of CFA, which implies the necessity of new markets for the unused CFA. Some potential future utilization options reviewed herein are zeolite synthesi...

There is wide concern about polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) because of their carcinogenic and mutagenic potential. The coking industry is an important source of PAHs. In this study, 36 arable soil samples, a sensitive medium from the perspective of food safety and health, were collected from one of the largest coke production bases in China. The concentration of total 21 PAHs ranged from 294 to 1665ngg(-1), with a mean of 822±355ngg(-1). Approximately 60% of the soil samples were heavily polluted with the level higher than 600ngg(-1). Particularly high abundances of high molecular weight PAHs were found, and the calculated BaPeq was as high as 54.3ngg(-1). Soil PAH levels were positively correlated with soil organic matter content. The soil PAHs were from complex mixture sources, and high-temperature pyrogenic sources were most likely responsible for the heavy PAH contamination. Effective control strategies and probable remediation approaches should be proposed to improve so...

Oil sands mining has been linked to increasing atmospheric deposition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Athabasca oil sands region (AOSR), but known sources cannot explain the quantity of PAHs in environmental samples. PAHs were measured in living Sphagnum moss (24 sites, n=68), in sectioned peat cores (4 sites, n=161), and snow (7 sites, n=19) from ombrotrophic bogs in the AOSR. Prospective source samples were also analyzed, including petroleum coke (petcoke, from both delayed and fluid coking), fine tailings, oil sands ore and naturally exposed bitumen. Average PAH concentrations in near-field moss (199 ng/g, n=11) were significantly higher (p=0.035) than in far-field moss (118 ng/g, n=13), and increasing temporal trends were detected in 3 peat cores collected closest to industrial activity. A chemical mass balance model estimated that delayed petcoke was the major source of PAHs to living moss, and among three peat cores the contribution to PAHs from delayed petco...

Weathering is a continuous process; the best way to deal with weathered coal is to identify the extent of weathering. Based on level of weathering its consumption pattern should be changed, this will help in minimizing the effect of weathering on coke quality. Due to weathering, various technological properties of coal get altered such as as ash, free swelling index, fluidity, plastic range and size degradation. There are various methods to monitor coal weathering. Percentage transmittance determined by alkali extraction test is one of the ways to monitor weathered coal. This paper discusses the use of artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the percentage transmittance. ANN model was developed using the experimental data and R Square values for training, testing and validation are 0.99, 0.95 and 0.98 respectively. It means the developed model can successfully predict the deterioration trend of coal weathering. It will help to take suitable action to minimize the effect of coal weathering on coke quality.

The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of the GSTM1 and GSTP1 genotypes on urinary 1-hydroxypyrene, a biomarker for exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. Urine samples were collected from coke oven workers at two time points (from 66 and 46 workers, respectively) and 1-hydroxypyrene was quantitated by HPLC chromatography. The genotype of GSTM1 and GSTP1 was determined by a PCR methods discriminating between GSTM1 present or absent and three different alleles for GSTP1. The mean value of urinary 1-hydroxypyrene was higher at both time points in coke oven workers with GSTM1 gene present compared to workers having the GSTM1 null genotype, but this difference was not statistically significant. The GSTM1 and GSTP1 genotypes were not significant parameters in a multiple regression analysis with urinary 1-hydroxypyrene as the dependent variable and with GSTM1, GSTP1, exposure group and smoking habit as explanatory variables. The biomarker 1-hydroxypyrene is not or only marginally influenced by the GSTM1 genotype. No systematic influence of the GSTP1 genotypes was found.

Steel has become a cornerstone and key driver for the world’s economy with its unique combination of strength, formability and versatility. With steel production having nearly doubled and reached 1.417 million tons in 2010 since 1990, metallurgical coke will continue to be major energy source for steel production through BF-BOF route. While this coke dependent steel making process through hot metal creates significant Green House Gas emissions resulting in global warming and climate change, the coke making process itself is a source of pollution with carcinogenic Benzo(a)pyrene leaking into the ambient air. Apart from improvement of economics of coke production and optimization of coke quality,reduction of carcinogenic emissions is now mandatory for prospective new coke plants in countries with increasing demand for steel. The third session of the Conference of Parties(COP3) held in Kyoto developed a protocol for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change with the objecti...