Coking furnace operator
Also called coker, coke oven operator, coking oven operator
Coking furnace operators monitor the operation of a usually automatic industrial oven that takes in crushed, washed, and blended bituminous coal and heats it to temperatures between 1000 and 2000 °C without the presence of oxygen in order to obtain cokes. The finished cokes are then quenched with water or air and prepared for transport.
What you'd do
Chemical products plant and machine operators · ILO- Setting up, starting, controlling, adjusting and stopping machines and plant
- Monitoring reaction processes and transfers of products in conformity with safety procedures
- Monitoring meters, gauges and electronic instrumentation on one or more chemical or formulation units, such as mixers, kettles, blenders, dryers, tabletting, encapsulation, granulation and coating machines
- Measuring, weighing and loading chemical ingredients following formulation cards
- Making samples and performing routine chemical and physical tests of products and recording production data
- Cleaning and performing minor repairs to machines and plant
- A mix of sitting and standing
- Lots of contact with people, mostly with colleagues
- Some freedom to decide
- Usually 40 hours a week
- Deadlines now and then
- Some repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Limited prospectsFewer jobs than in most work will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
About averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,000 a month (Bulgaria) to €5,500 (Denmark), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among plant and machine operators, and assemblers in the EU, women earn 21% less per hour than men. Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Upper secondary or vocationalUpper secondary or vocational training is the usual route.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could help with only small parts of the tasks.
Average task score 0.24 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 6 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for chemical products plant and machine operators. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).