Coking coal supplies for the Ravenscraig Coke Ovens came from several local collieries, in particular Polkemmet Colliery in West Lothian supplying 95% of its mined coal to the steelworks. After its completion in 1979, Hunterston Coal and Ore Terminal also supplied Ravenscraig with two trainloads of coal carrying 2,500 tons a day.
The coal was received at the coal handling area, crushed and then transported to the coke oven batteries. When first built, Ravenscraig had 70 Becker-type combination gas-gun coke ovens built across two batteries of 35 ovens each. They were fired with either reclaimed blast furnace or coke oven gas and were designed with ventilated foundations to reduce drying-out of the clay beds.
Carbonisation of the coal is produced by quenching the heated coal with water. The resulting coke was transported to the screening plant where it was sorted into size, with the large bricks being used as fuel for the blast furnaces.
The coking process also produced gas. This was then piped to the by-products plant to be purified and other valuable products, such as tar, ammonia and benzole, were extracted.
Ravenscraig Coke Ovens
© RCAHMS