"The Steubenville East works in Follansbee is connected with Steubenville North of WheelingSteel's railway bridge, and produces coke and coke oven gas required for manufacturing operations. Comprising 314 coke ovens of the latest type, these facilities also include a modern plant for the recovery of by-products from coke oven gas." [OhioCountyLibrary, 1956]
The bridge connected this plant with the blast furnaces in Steubenville, OH.
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| Raymond Boothe posted Aerial view of Mountain State Carbon in Follansbee, West Virginia (unkn/Dr. Raymond Boothe collection). |
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| Anthony Scurti posted Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel coke plant |
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| Michael Jones posted Coke Plant in Follansbee, WV…2012 |
Bubba Dubs posted two photos with the comment: "Mountain State Carbon Follansbee WV."
James Torgeson: They supply furnace coke to other Cliffs operations as well as selling it on the open market. They also produce foundry coke.
James Torgeson: They supply furnace coke to other Cliffs operations as well as selling it on the open market. They also produce foundry coke.
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| Bubba Dubs posted Mountain State Carbon, September 6th, 2020 |
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| Jon Wolfe posted Former Mountain State Carbon, Follensbee WV Andrew Mihalyo: When i was a pre teenager , that stretch of Rt 2 north of Follansbee was called Coke Town, I remember the row houses adjacent to the plant, that the workers lived in, all the same color due to the pollution, i also remember that in mid day drivers had to use headlights ,but the plant offered good paying jobs and gave many men and women a chance to raise their families 👍 David Mihalyo: Andrew Mihalyo don't forget the lovely smell. |
Bubba Dubs posted eleven drone photos with the comment:
Today’s post of my steel mill tour brings us to Follansbee WV. This Cliffs owned coke plant in was originally a Wheeling Steel facility that changed hands quite a few times over the years. Before cliffs it was AK and Mountain State Carbon.
How many batteries do they have?
Four
I am wondering who is buying Mountain State coke. From the photos I cannot tell which or how many batteries are operating. I know there are not enough blast furnaces buying their coke and I know AK Middletown is not because they are buying Sun Coke from Ironton, Ohio but maybe the Dearborn furnace is buying some. Because of the lack of blast furnaces, they are trying to sell foundry coke, which are much bigger chunks which are the same size as a basketball but foundry cupola customers are getting less. I am speculating that they have shut down some batteries because of less operating blast furnaces and less operating foundry cupolas. They could maybe find some copper blast furnaces in South America and Mexico. Their two largest competitors on foundry coke are Walters Energy and ABC Coke in Birmingham, Alabama. Market foundry coke is a difficult market due to lack of customers. Most of them are changing over from cupolas to electric induction furnaces. In five years or so, maybe one or two of them will be gone. Alabama coal is very good quality too.
Author
Richard Allison
I don’t know where they are selling it, but I can tell you that they definitely had at least 4-5 quenches when I was there Sunday. I was there a few years ago and they def were quenching a lot more, so I think they are running at a reduced rate, but still running.Richard Allison
their coke has been going to the Dearborn furnace. How much and how often that I’m unsure of. I do know they ship it predominantly by rail.They have two choices for reduced production, take batteries off for good or reduced production and increase it from 18 hrs to 24 hours or more. The more they extend production, the more they get short on gas for heating flues and they might add some natural gas if it is in the area which becomes expensive. USS is self sufficient for coke with Clairton and ArcelorMittal might be sufficient with their Chicago and Monesson Plants. AM fuels their Cleveland furnaces at Sun Coke and so does Granite City. AK-Middletown buys coke from Sun Coke in Middletown. That leaves the Dearborn furnace. My educated guess is that the coke rate is about 610 lbs per ton and full production is around 6,000 tons per day so they are consuming 1,830 tons per day of coke and assuming they are injecting oil or natural gas in the tuyeres. I don't think they are using pulverized coal. That is only 658,000 tons per year. The question is who is supplying coke to Dearborn, Mountain State Carbon or Sun Coke-Haverhill No.2, the battery that supplied AK-Ashland Works which Amanda Furnace is permanently closed. AK has a take or pay contracts with Sun Coke and so I wonder who is supplying the blast furnace in Dearborn. Mountain State has one six meter battery and three - three meter batteries. That means they can produce almost 1.5 million tons of coke a year. I know Mountain Coke is competing with two coke plants in Birmingham, Alabama. I am thinking coke is very much in surplus with less coke cupolas and less blast furnaces. Sun Coke has contracts lasting at least 9 years more so Mountain State will have to survive on the few cast iron foundries in this hemisphere and that will be a tough road.
Author
I know that C furnace is designed more towards 8,000-9,000 tons per day. But they are also using powdered coal as well so the coke charge is probably lower than a furnace not using the powdered coal charge.
Bubba Dubs
I did not know about th coal injection. Armco was the first to do coal injection in blast furnaces and first done on Amanda Furnace at Ashland. They used the same Babcock & Wilcox pulverizers as used in coal thermal power plants. Anyway, I don't think C Furnace at Dearborn is not at full production but figuring the furnace at 9,000 tons/day of iron and a coke rate of 350 lbs per ton considering coal injection the coke used is roughly 1575 tons/day of coke or 5.5 million tons/ yr. When Cleveland-Cliffs finishes their DRI plant in Toledo, I could see them sending some to Dearborn to be charged into the BF and could increase production up to 20% more. They could have the DRI reserved for in house EAFs so I don't know their intentions. Regardless with the long term coke agreements with Sun Coke and AK, it is a take or pay contract that could have another 10 years to go so with AK ownership to Mountain State Coke it makes a huge problem to stay in business so they are hoping making foundry might save them. It is hard to believe coke rates have gone down so much. Back in the 70s, coke rates were as much as 925 lbs per ton. |
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coke plants do need a lot of coal.
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| David Gulden posted THE COAL LIFE |
And it appears they still receive coal by barge.
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4 drone photos Cleveland-Cliffs now owns this plant also
Jimmy Campbell: They just got awarded 600 million dollars for maintenance for this place. I heard we’re going to be in there for the next few years continuing to fix everything that is bad here. And that’s just about every structure!! I don’t work for mountain state carbon i work for a outside contractor through the ironworkers. [How wonder how much of that planned $600m they spent before they pulled the plug On April 1, 2022.]
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| Raymond Boothe posted Last Friday [Feb 11, 2022], Cliffs Steel announced that they will be closing their historic Mountain State Carbon Plant on the Ohio River. Originally built by the Wheeling Steel Corporation, this plant has operated for over 100 years. The plant will start the closing process from April-June 2022 with 280 union employees being offered jobs including many at the nearby Cliffs Weirton Tin Works. According to Cliffs the plant is being closed due to old age and their reduced need for coke. This is due to Cliffs' policy of reducing their carbon imprint with the firing of their blast furnaces with more scrap and HBI. Currently Cliffs operates the Indiana Harbor Works with a contract with SunCoke Energy. They own their own coke plant at Burns Harbor with the Cleveland Works receiving their coke from the Cliffs Warren Coke Works and SunCoke Energy. The Middletown blast furnace receives their coke from SunCoke Energy while Dearborn receives their coke from within Cliffs Steel operations and other contracts with SunCoke Energy. The adjacent Koppers Tar and Chemical Plant adjacent to Mountain State Carbon most likely will close also. |
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| safe_image for Follansbee coke plant slated to close Well, Cliffs just demolished the Ashland Works this week and today they announced another closing in the Ohio River Valley. Mountain State Coke will be closed by Cliffs in the second quarter of this year. Mountain State was owned by AK and Cliffs acquired the plant when they absorbed AK. I am not sure but I think Mountain State supplied some coke to Middletown and some to Dearborn. I am guessing that Cliffs will be substituting the loss of coke from Sun Coke which probably needs more sales. Otherwise I wonder if there are any blast furnaces that might be closing this year. IF there are any cuts, I think No.3 Middletown or Dearborn will be vulnerable. I could not guess which would be most vulnerable but Middletown has to receive all raw materials by rail which is not cheap these days. Dearborn receives most of it's raw materials by ships on the Great Lakes and is a much newer furnace. The only thing is that Dearborn has to ship slabs by railroad almost 300 miles south for finishing which is not cheap. That is a toss up. Anyway, it is so sad to see all the steelmaking capacity go from the Ohio River Valley. At one time, companies like Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steubenville, Mingo Jct., Wheeling and Weirton Steel plants, Armco-Ashland and Empire-Detroit Steel all have been demolished except for JSW Mingo. The Ohio River Valley used to make a lot of steel at one time and was a District and a steel center at one time... Cliffs has bought into the New Green Steel and this closing was to be expected. It came earlier than what I thought. This closing will eventually affect the blast furnaces this plant served. I am a little surprised too because Mountain State was trying to make foundry coke for the cast iron cupolas around the country and with another merchant coke plant being closed in Birmingham last year, I figured Mountain State would have picked up their customers. It appears that foundry iron melting cupolas are being torn down too and replaced with electric induction furnaces. Where is all this electric coming from? I know my house electric rates here in Florida have skyrocketed!!!! Believe me, solar and wind renewables are not free nor cheap. I can show you my bills. I feel sorry for the people in Follansbee, WV and across the river at Steubenville-Mingo, OH and I hope many of them can get on with the new Nucor Steel plant downriver from there. Richard Allison: John Slowikowski I was under the impression it was on the River. Thanks for the info. As far as I know, Rouge rolling mills are done and Middletown rolling mills are very good. |
Feb 11, 2022: Bubba Dubs posted four photos with the comment: "It was good while it lasted Follansbee…… So long, and thanks for all the coke."
Tim DiPasquale: When we were young, driving by on the way to Steubenville or Weirton, we always called it Coketown. Even if I dozed off in the back seat, the unmistakable smell of cooked sulfer reminded me of where we were on the way to our destination. It became a weirdly comfortable smell of home. After working 2 years in the Weirton Steel Coke Plant I understood the chemistry behind the smell and a flood of memories would come back.
I need to come home before that last push so I can experience the taste of what made our valley so special one more time.
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| 1 Dennis Cagney: No smoke , very clean. Is it already down? Bubba Dubs: Dennis Cagney this was last summer. |
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Three photos Bradford Gill posted on the third photo as comments.
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| 1 My lift for L belt |
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| John Slowikowski posted, cropped Follansbee coke plant George Vacheresse: A guy hit a line with an excavator down by coke plant where I work and four loud explosions of electricity after …….and these are the lines running to the coke plant which may be why they lost power! Understand now? J.B. Caldwell: Standard beehive event. Detail every car downwind for ten miles. Pics I took topside one event looked like an air strike just after the napalm dropped. We finally got natural gas as backup boiler fuel to restart steam to get exhausters to get coke oven gas as fuel again about 30 hours later. Brad Steele: Oh been there. Lost our exhauster and had to switch to back up. But during the time it took it was a firery hot mess. Steven Hammond: Definitely looks like a bad exhauster failure!! Christopher J Shoppa: Looks like they lost the turbines that take the gas off the batteries |
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| Jamey Shirdon posted Steel mill power house |
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| Owen Nesslage posted Mountain State Carbon Follansbee. Looks like all the batteries to the left have already been demo’d. |
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