Heating of carbon black

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Production processes

A summary of the most important production processes is given in Table 1. In general, the processes are divided into two groups: those employing incomplete or partial combustion and those based on thermal cracking (pyrolysis) [47, InfoMil, 2002]. This nomenclature is somewhat misleading insofar as the carbon black resulting from the partial combustion process is also formed by pyrolysis. The two types of processes differ in that, in the partial combustion processes, air is used to burn part of the feedstock, thus producing the energy required to carry out the pyrolysis, whereas in the thermal cracking process, heat is generated externally and introduced into the process.

Table 1: Manufacturing processes and feedstock used for the production of carbon black [47, InfoMil, 2002]

The furnace black process is currently the most important production process. It accounts for more than 95 % of the total worldwide production [47, InfoMil, 2002]. The advantages of the furnace black process are its great flexibility, which allows the manufacture of various grades of carbon black, and its better economy compared to other processes. The following comparison makes this apparent: for similar grades of carbon black, the production rate of one flame is approximately 0.002 kg/h for channel black, approximately 0.2 kg/h for gas black, and approximately 2000 kg/h for a modern furnace black reactor. Some furnace black reactors have production rates of up to 5000 kg/h.

However, in spite of the more advantageous furnace black process, the production processes listed in Table 1(except for the channel black process that is no longer operated) are still in use for the production of special carbon blacks which cannot be obtained via the furnace black process.

Furnace black process

Source: European Commission, Large Volume Inorganic Chemicals - Solids and Others industry, August 2007, p. 208-215

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