Process Design, Techno-Economic Analysis, and Life-Cycle Assessment of Low-Temperature Catalytic Graphitization of Petroleum Coke to Graphite at Scale

Graphite is a critical material with many applications, but existing synthetic graphite production is highly energy and capital intensive. Recent experimental advances in the catalytic conversion of petroleum coke (petcoke) have shown a great promise to produce battery-grade graphite at substantially lower temperatures and with shorter batch durations. However, the scale-up and industrial viability of petcoke-derived catalytic graphite processes are unknown. In this work, we report a detailed process flowsheet and a techno-economic and cradle-to-gate life-cycle assessment of an iron-catalyzed petcoke-to-graphite process integrating closed-loop regeneration, multistage leaching, and heat integration at scale. Our techno-economic analysis suggests that the process could produce graphite at production costs ranging $3.57–11.3 per kg of graphite, depending on batch throughput, with 90% of the catalyst and most of the acid recovered. Our life-cycle assessment indicates a baseline emission of 14.3 kg CO2 eq per kg, which can be further reduced to 11.1 kg CO2 eq per kg using renewable electricity and green hydrogen. A probabilistic cash-flow analysis projects an 11-year median payback and a 93.2% probability of a positive net present value, indicating catalytic graphitization is a viable, lower-emission alternative to conventional synthetic graphite.