ZDZIESZOWICE CHEMICAL COKE PLANT (DESCRITPION OF PLANT & AIR RAID SHELTERS; PRODUCTION OF COKE, TAR, BENGAL & AMMNIUM SULPHATE)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80T00246A048800380001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 8, 1959
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Law., Title
18, U.S.C. Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
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COUNTRY Poland REPORT
SUBJECT Zdzieszowice Chemical Coke Plant DATE DISTR.
NO. PAGES
A f f` 1
DATE OF
INFO.
PLACE &
DATE ACQ.
2. Thel (sketch of the Zdzieszowice Chemical Coke Plant, the
legend0which is given in this report,
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STATE ]( ARMY X NAVY X AIR X BI I IAEC
LI
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COUNTRY
DATE DISTR. 30 April 1959
SUBJECT Zdziea;owioe Chemical Coke Plant NO. OF PAGES 11
DATE OF INFORMATION:
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
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The Zdzieszowiae Chemical Coke Plant
General Information
The Zdzieszowioe Chemical Coke Plant (Zakiady kokeoohemiazne
Zdzieszowioe) was 500 meters south of the Zdzieszowice Railroad
Station (N 50-25, B 18-07) and 2.5 kilometers east of the Oder
River on flat ground covering an area of 900 x 500 meters. It
was originally constructed in 1931/32 as a coke plant. A tar
distillery and a benzol refinery were added in 1934. A further
addition in 1937 ialuded a synthesis plant for the production of
hydrocarbons using the Fischer - Tropech method. During World
War II, the plant was not seriously damaged. After the war it
was dismantled by the Soviets. In the years 1947 to 1949, the
plant was reconstructed, and, by 1950, the production of coke
and by-products had reached the pre-World War II level. The
tar distillery was in operation till 1950, but after that
reverted to the process of removing water from the tar, while
the final distillation process was accomplished in other plants.
The production of hydrocarbons was not resumed after the war.
Overlay
N 50-2Oppei , Ger ny. Scale: 1:100,000,
(1) Village of Bergetadt (Lesnica).
(2) Coke Plant Area.
(3) Double Rail Line - leading from Oppeln (Opole) to Ratibor
(Raciborz).
(4) Road - 12 meters wide and asphalt covered, running through
the village of Odertal (Zdzieszowioe).
(5) Oder River.
(6) Zdzieszowioe Railroad Station.
Coal Processing
The Zdzieszowiee Chemical Coke Plant processedtituminous coal
from several coal mines. Coal was shipped from the Wictoria,
Nova Ruda, and Mieszkow coal mines, all in the area of Walbrzych
(N 50-46, E 16-17). Coal was also shipped from the Dubensko and
Szombierki coal mines, which were in the Upper Silesian coal
fields. The average weekly delivery of coal shipped by rail
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was 16,000 tons. Shortages in coal deliveries occurred only
during the winter as a result of rail traffic difficulties
caused by adverse weather conditions. Delays in coal deliveries
were alleviated by coal reserves created in the coke plants in
accordance with Polish government regulations requiring each
coke plant to stockpile coal for five to 14 days, depending
upon the distance from the coal fields and the time of shipping
involved. The regulations for the Zdzieszowiee Coke Plant called
for a coal reserve for 10 days. Besides this regular amount of
reserve coal, an additional 16,000 tons of coal could, if
necessary, be stored inside the coal blending installation. The
coal reserve was used only during the holiday seasons when the
mines were not operating.
Before World War II, this coke plant used coal only from the
.Szombierki coal mine. It was shipped to the plant daily in two
freight trains, each consisting of 20 railroad care with each
train hauling an aggregate total of 1200 tons. Each train
covered the distance from the mine to the plant in approximately
five hours. The automatic unloading of the entire train took
about 25 minutes. The pre-war coal delivery system was such a
smooth operation that the coke plant never had any shortages
and did not require any substantial coal reserves.
After World War II, the new coal blending system was introduced,
requiring the coke plants to mix and use coal from several coal
mines. This system aimed at achieving identical coke quality
in all Polish coke plants regardless of the disadvantages con-
nected with this new system. The main disadvantage was the loss
of time invdved in the pickup and delivery of coal from the
various mines to the coke plants. As each train had a certain
number of cars, it had to transport other goods too. As a re-
sult of such mixed loads, the time required for transporting and
delivering the coal was considerably increased (to from five
to 14 day.),including continuous switching within the railroad
yards.
Imaoortance of the Plant in Future Planning.
The importance of this coke plant was its geographical location
outside the Polish coal fields in the Upper Silesian region.
This plant did not require safety measures,'particularly
supporting columns and beams, like those in other plants in
coal-mining areas. Ivory square meter of surface land in the
rich coal region of Upper Silesia contained 'about 200 tons of
coal. The location of a coke plant in such a region, therefore,
meant that either coal could not be mined at all or that
special construction measures had to be undertaken. The
Zdsiessowioe Chemical Coke Plant was in a flat area, and
extension was possible in every direction. Plans for two new
coke batteries, adjacent to the present ones east of the plant,
have been completed.
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In connection with the advantageous geographical location of the
Zdzieezowiee plant, the Association of Coke and Metallurgical
Industry planned to consolidate the coke plants in Poland into
four plants. All were to be located outside of, but adjacent to,
coal fields. The reasons for this consolidation were as
follows:
a) To reduce production coats, which would be relatively
smaller in large plants.
b) To use manpower more economically.
c) To eliminate the traffic problem caused by the congestion
of daily commuting workers.
d) To reduce the need to transport coal to several distant
plants.
Organization
The Zdzieszowiee Plant was subordinate to the Association of
Coke and Metallurgical Industry (Zjedroczenie Przemyalu
koksoehemiczno-hutniosego) in Katowice, headed by General
Director Sikora (fnu). The association technical director for
the coke and by-product industry was Engineer Kotlarz (fnu).
The Association was in turn subordinate to the'Ministry of
Heavy Industry.
The Zdzieszowice plant employed about 1200 people, Including
seven chemical engineers. Benkowsky (fnu) was the director;
Kassa (fnu) was in charge of a laboratory located near the tar
distillation plant; Les zjn ki (fnu) was in charge of another
laboratory; Meissner (fnu) was in charge of the purchasing
office; and Derszko (fnu) was in charge of the repair shop.
Producti2n Figures
10. The capacity of this plant as given in the 1932 statistics by the
Still constructing firm in was
2300 tone of dry coal every 24 ours rrom o .oo e batteries. 50X1-HUM
In 1958, the capacity attained was 2200 tons of dry coal.
a capacity of from 2400 to 2500 tons
of 50 degrees Centigrade above the present temperature without
endangering the oven material. The results of the coal pro-
cessing were: 85 percent dry coke, 3.2 to 3.6 percent tar,
1.2 to 1.3 percent bensol, and the rest gas and ammonia water.
The daily plant output was : 1900 tons of coke, 75 tons of
tar, 30 tons of crude benzol, 24 tons of ammonium sulphate, and
5.2 tons of a sodium phenolate solution containing 25 percent
of phenol for every ton cC raw naphthalene.
sou be reached the ovens could be heated to a temperature 50X1-HUM
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8 etch
10. Inalosure 1 is a ketch of the Chemical Coke Plant in 50X1-HUM
Zdziestowiee. Numbers n parentheses below refer to correspond-
ing numbers on the sketch.
(1) Road - eight meters wide, asphalt covered, leading from
the Zdzieszowiee railroad station to Leszniea.
(2) Road - 12 meters wide, asphalt covered, leading to and
through the plant.
(3) Dispensary - a two-story brick building, measuring 25 x 10
meters. The dispensary and snack bar were on the first
floor, and waiting rooms were on the second floor.
(4) Sulphur Removal Section - using the dry method process,
hydrogen sulphide was removed from the gas in purification
boxes containing bog iron ore.
(5) Water Cooling Towers - four 20-meter-high wooden towers,
with a 15 x 15 meter foundation; used to cool the circula-
ing water from the power plant.
(6) Thermal Power Plant - a 20-meter-highs reinforced concrete
brick building measuring 80 ar 25 meters. Two 5000-kilowatt
turbines were in operation supplying power for the coke
plant. Till 1945, this plant was equipped with 50,000-
kilowatt turbines. With the projected enlargement of the
plant by adding two coke batteries, a substantial increase
in electrical power would be needed.
(7) Power Plant Chimney - 95 meters high, with a diameter of
eight meters at the base.
(8) Three Air Raid Shelters - barrel-type construction, measur-
ing 25 x 10 meters, with a two-meter-deep underground pit.
The concrete walls were 2.5 m=eters thick.
(9) Guardhouse - a brick building, measuring 5 x 8 x 5 meters.
It housed the offices of the uniformed civilian guards and
a waiting room. The entrance gate consisted of two iron
wings, which were normally open all day. An iron chain
was used to stop all vehicle traffic for checking purposes.
(10) Fence - a 2.5-meter-high chicken-wire fence surw,ounding the
entire coke plant and the former synthesis plant to the
south of it. Two-winged gates were used at all places in
the fence where railroad tracks entered the plant. They
were opi=ned only when rail traffic was passing, and were
otherwise kept closed.
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(11) Warehouse - a brick building, measuring 25 x 10 x 8 meters,
used for storing spare parts for the plant's equipment, as
well as material for the maintenance shop.
(12) Repair Shop - a brick building, measuring 25 x 10 x 8
meters, used for all repair work including that on railroad
cars and engines.
(13) Open Air Coke Dump - covering an area of 150 x 80 meters.
It was originally used as a coke storage point, but, as a
result of the Communist doctrine requiring immediate con-
sumption or goods produced, it was almost always empty.
(14) Overhead Mobile Crane - moved along two parallel tracks
located on both sides of the coke dump. It had an hourly
loading capacity of 200 tons and a lifting capacity of
seven tons. The crane was seldom used because the coke
dump was almost always empty. A coke sifting apparatus was
attached to this crane.
(15)
Coke Separation Plant - a concrete structure, measuring
40 x 50 x 15 meters, with a 25-meter-high coke tower in
the center. It was built on columns to enable railroad
traffic to pass underneath. Here coke was sorted according
to size and loaded into railroad care from movable plat-
forms.
(16) Two Storage Tanks - five meters high, with a diameter of
five meters. They were used for tar and ammonia water.
(17) Two Coke Oven Batteries - with a total length of 250 meters.
Each battery had 60 ovens, and each oven measured 13 x
.45 x,4 meters. The ovens were the regenerating type with
graduating burning according to the Still method. One
centrally located coal tower distributed coal to all 120
ovens. Each coke oven battery had a coke-pushing machine.
(18) Coke Discharging Platform - six-meter wide, open-air,
flat metal platform where the coke was evaporated and
cooled off by water, without using the quenching tower, and
was also stored after the quenching tower process before
being shipped to the coke separation plant.
(19) Coal Tower - measuring 25 x 30 x 35 meters. From this
tower, coal was distributed to the coke batteries. It was
poured into containers, measuring 13 v 4 x.45 meters,
where it was stamped and then transported to the coke
battery chambers.
(20) Quenching Tower - a rectangular 15-meter-high concrete
tower with a 15 x 5 meter foundation. The fully loaded
quenching oar entered the tower for quenching and then
unloaded the coke onto the coke platform. Every 20 to 25
minutes steam could be seen rising from the quenching
tower.
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(21) Utility-Gas Container - a water-sealed cylindrical tank
holding 5000 cubic meters of utility gas.
(22) Two Coke Oven Chimneys - each had a diameter of six meters
and was 68 meters high.
(23) Tracks - used by the coal-stamping and coke-discharging
machine. This type of machine was used in Poland and in
the Saar region only because the coal in these areas re-
quired additional processing to produce coke.
(24) Administration Building - a two-story ,rick building
measuring 50 x 25 meters. It housed the administrative
offices, the designing department, and the switchboard.
(25) Double Rill Line - running from Xedsierzyn through
Zdzieszowioe to Opole. Several railroad spurs connected
the coke plant with this main railroad line.
(26) Gravel Road - eight meters wide, and in good condition,
(27) Building - measuring 30 x 20 x 4 meters, with a 15-meter-
high wing at one end. It housed washrooms, shower rooms,
toilets, and check rooms.
(28) Production Building - a brick building, measuring 18 x 18 x
5 meters, with a 30-meter-high wing at one end. It was
used for the dephenolization of ammonia water in which
phenol was extracted from water by the Pott-Xilgenstook
Method.
(29) AIonia Sulphate Plant - a brick building measuring 65 x
18 x 10 meters with a 15-meter-high wing used for ammonia
storm e. In this plant, ammonia was extracted from
aamania water by means of a steam p+oeese, and passed
through saturators filled with sulphuric acid.
(30) Shop - measuring 50 v 18 meters and built on concrete
columns. It contained a one-story center section and two
open-air wings, one one each side. About eight gas
exhaustors were located in this shop. The pumps were
made by Weise 6o Soehne, and the eight exhaustors by Brown-
Boveri. All were located in the center section of the
shop. Each gas exhauster was driven by a turbine, and had
a capacity of 15,000 cubic meters of gas per hour. On the
average, three exhaustors were in operation at the same
time. Gas for the coke batteries was cooled from 160
degrees Centigrade to 20 degrees Centigrade in condensers
in the eastern wing of the shop. The condensed by-products,
tar and ammonia water, were collected in large metal
containers. This shop also had six 35-meter-high open-air
bensol washers for gas debenxolizing, located in the
western wing.
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(31) Two Conveyer Belts in Hallway - leading from the coal
crushing station, point (42) to the top of the coal tower,
point (19). The hallway was four motors high and four
meters wide. Two one-meter-wide rubber belts moved up and
down to transport the crushed wet coal. A sidewalk
through this hallway was used for the control of, and re-
pair work on, the belts. The hallway was covered by
asbestos, and had windows on both sides for Illumination.
(32) Open-Air Installation - with tube heaters to heat the oil
coming from the benzol washers, point (30). The heated oil
was then pumped to the bensol recovery plant, point (33),
and cooled off,
(33) Bensol Recovery Plant - a brick building measuring 50 x
15 x 15 meters. It contained the heat exchangers for
benzol and wash oil, a distillation column Peer all benzol
and a purification apparatus'for crude bensol only. Several
large metal containers for bensol, each with a capacity of
75 cubic meters, were placed in the southern side of this
plant. An installation for crystallization of naphthalene
from wash oil was located inside and partially outside the
plant.
(34) Elevated Water Tank - located on top of a 20-meter-high
iron construction, and contained a reserve water supply,
(35) Laboratory Building - a one-story brick building, measuring
50 x 15 meters, and with a flat roof. Inside the building
were six 100-cubic meter containers, standing on four con-
crete columns, and reaching a height of 10 meters above
the floor. The containers were filled with tar, ammonia
water, and sulphuric sold. The entire building consisted
of laboratories eparated by glass walls. One room had an
air compressor and a tank. A total of 30 workers was em-
ployed in both this laboratory andT;he c,t,her at point (51).
(36) Shop - a reinforced concrete and brick building, measuring
10 x 15 x 20 maters. It received the waste water coming
from the ammonia sulphate production. This waste water
contained traces of phenol, sulphur compounds, lime, eta,,
and had to be cleaned before it was drained into the Odor
River.
(37) Locomotive Repair Shop - for two railroad engines.
(38) Pitch Cooling Basin - an open-air basin into which liquid
pitch with a temperature of 90 degrees Centigrade was
poured and solidified by cooling. The cooled pitch was
then loaded into railroad care and shipped t*() the briquet
plants located in the Ssomierki area in the Rymer,
Radsionkow, and Wujek mines.
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(39) Tar Distillation Plant - completely equipped, but closed
down in 1950 because too many tar distillation plants were
in operation in Poland. The tar from this coke plant was
shipped to Blachownia for distillation purposes. It com-
prised five batch stills? each with a capacity of 35 cubic
meters, a 30-meter-high distillation columns and coolers for
the oil produced. T inks for various oil types were located
ou~side the building.
(40) Open-Air Water Basin - measuring 25 x 25 meters and three
meters deep. It was separated by a concrete wall into two
sections, one of which contained water for the cooling
tower, point (41), and the other water from the wells.
(41) Cooling Tower - a 20-meter-high wooden structure for the
cooling of water from the bensol recovery plant,
(42) Coal Crushing and Blending Station - a concrete building,
measuring 60 x 30 meters, with an eastern wing 35 meters
high and a western wing 20 meters high. It had a 10-meter-
deep coal bunker, from which the coal was lifted in con-
tainers to elevated bunkers to be pushed into the three
crushing machines. The crushing machines were of the
hammer-mill type (He ern*uehle), each with a capacity of
50 tons per hour. Ninety percent of the coal was crushed
to a size under two mi1.li,meterso The ground coal from the
various coal mines was stored in several bunkers. The mix-
ing ratio was determined and controlled by rotating distri-
butors at the bottom of the bunkers. The coal fell on con-
veyer belts, which carried it to a large container. Final
crushing and mixing took place in the disintegrators, each
with a capacity of 30 tons per hour. Ninety-five percent
of this final coal mixture consisted of grains smaller than
two millimeters. This mixture''was moistened during transit
from the screw conveyers to the main conveyer, point (31).
The wetted coal contained from 10 to 11 percent moisture.
(43) Crystallization Station - for naphthalene and anthraoene.
Although fully equipped, it had not been in use since 1949.
There were no signs of its activities being renewed.
(44) Building - formerly used for the recovery of phenol and ore-
sole from carbolic oil. This building was dismantled by the
Soviets in 1945 - 1946 and was never restored.
(45) Open-Air Tanks - with a total capacity of 5000 tone of oil.
They were connected by pumps with the tar distillation plant
and coke batteries.
(46) Fire Station - a brick building, measuring 8 x 25 x 5
meters, with a 25-meter-high observation tower.
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(47) Snack Bar - a two-story brick building, measuring 8 x 25
meters.
(48) Building - formerly used as a gas-producing plant, almost
completely dismantled, and not in use.
(49) Repair Shop - a brick building, measuring 25 x 50 x 5 meters,
with a 15-meter-high wing on,one side. It was the main
repair shop for the plant.
(50) Warehouse - a one-story brick building, measuring 20 x 40
meters.
(51) Laboratory - a two-story building, measuring 20 x 50
meters. It was used for analytical research connected with
the coke plant.
(52)
(53)
Railroad Engine Terminal.
Railroad Engine Turning Bridge.
Air Raid Shelters
12. In addition to the three air raid 'shelters, point (8), this
plant had more than 100 one-man -.,orcrete shelters located mainly
inside the buildings in the immediate vicinity of the working
areas which had to be serviced during air raids. Other ehe]bers
w ors Ianitwd nutwida thA imnnrtant htlild1new_
7 11 19 ?,
the air raid shelters In the plan t$ the pro eo ng walls around
the oil tanks, and the sand walls inside the buildings were pro-
gressively removed. However, in late 1947, a government decree
put an immediate end to all this dismantling activity. No new
air raid shelters were known to have been constructed.
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ppeln, Germany, Scales 1:100 000
Target Center (N 50-25, E 18-06)
Figure 1
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CONFIDENTIAL
SKETCH of a CHEMICAL COKE PLANT
IN ZDZIGSZOWICE (N 50-25, E 18-08)
TARGET CENTER (N-.50-25, E 18-08)
INCLOSURE I
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