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Show Geneva Steel Plant Commences Operation With Coke Production i . Coke was produced Tuesday for the first time in the coke ovens at Geneva, according to officials of Geneva steel company,, U. S. Steel subsidiary. This is the initial ini-tial phase of operations at the $180,000,000 Geneva plant near Provo, Utah, designed to supply ship plates for the west coast shipbuilding program. It was in April, 1942, that the 1600-acre plant site was cleared of small farm buildings which dotted the area. Construction was undertaken at the request of Defense Plant corporation by Columbia Co-lumbia Steel company, west coast subsidiary of U. S. steel. In August Au-gust of this year, Geneva Steel company, a newly formed U. S. steel subsidiary, contracted with Defense Plant croporation to operate op-erate this great war plant for the duration without profit or fee. To supply coal for coking purposes, pur-poses, which, in turn, will supply sup-ply coke and other fuels for the Geneva Steel plant, the Geneva mine in southeastern Utah was developed and is now shipping coal to Geneva's 'by-products plant. Coke is made by heating crushed coal in the air-tight ovens from 17 to 19 hours at temperatures tem-peratures ranging up to 2000 degrees de-grees Fahrenheit. During the heating process, the volatile constituents con-stituents of the coal are driven off in the form of gases. These gases, though, don't "go up in smoke" at Geneva plant. They are reclaimed as by-products, such as gas for fuel purposes, coal tar, armonium sulphate, benol and others. The residue, which is largely carbon, is the coke. It is removed re-moved from the ovens, cooled, graded according to size, and is then ready for use in the blast furnaces. There are four batteries bat-teries of coke ovens at Geneva 63 in each battery. One of these batteries is now in production. , The next major step in opera- I tions expected to be taken during dur-ing the current month will be the production of pig iron in the first o fthree blast furnaces. Following Fol-lowing upon this, the first three of nine open hearth furnaces will go into service for the production of steel ingots. Finally upon completion com-pletion of shipment and erection of the required facilities, the rolling mills will begin to turn out war crticial ship plates. When the Geneva plant swings into full operation, it will produce pro-duce approximately 1.200,000 tons of steel ingots annually. |