coke, solid residue remaining after certain types of bituminous coals are heated to a high temperature out of contact with air until substantially all of the volatile constituents have been driven off. The residue is chiefly carbon, with minor amounts of hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen. Also present in coke is the mineral matter in the original coal, chemically altered and decomposed during the coking process.
Oven coke (size: 40 to 100 millimetres, about 1 1/2 to 4 inches) is used throughout the world in blast furnaces to make iron. Smaller quantities of coke are used in other metallurgical processes, such as the manufacture of ferroalloys, lead, and zinc, and in kilns to make lime and magnesia. Large, strong coke, known as foundry coke, is used in foundry cupolas to smelt iron ores. Smaller sizes of both oven and gas coke (15 to 50 millimetres) are used to heat houses and commercial buildings. Coke measuring 10 to 25 millimetres in size is employed in the manufacture of phosphorus and of calcium carbide, the raw material from which acetylene is made. Coke breeze (less than 12 millimetres) is applied to the sintering of small iron ore prior to use in blast furnaces. Any surplus breeze coke becomes industrial boiler fuel.