Feedstock carbon black formation

The principal materials being fed into the reactor are air, gas (or fuel), and the feedstock. The materials coming out of the reactor are, of course, combustion gases, carbon black, water, and the nitrogen which comes into the reactor in the air and passes through unchanged. The question we have then is how is the feedstock converted to carbon black What are the reactions that occur, where do they occur, and under what variables, what are the reactor rates, and what are the mechanisms of carbon black formation What are the key variables in the system relative to controlling particle size, surface area, and structure ... 

Up to 4.3% of water was found on feeding silica-filled PMMA, mostly deriving from hygroscopic PMMA. For unfilled PMMA in the laboratory plant the carbon black formation is very low (0.01%). This value increased to 1.3% for filled PMMA as feedstock. 

The preheated feedstock is atomized radially to the smallest possible droplets in a tubular reactor, the so-called carbon black furnace . There is a zone of high turbulence immediately in front of the injector in which the atomized feedstock is intimately mixed with hot gases from the combustion of the fuel (preferably natural gas, but also coking gas or liquid gas) in an excess of preheated air. The air excess is so adjusted that up to ca. 50% by weight of the carbon black-feedstock is consumed. The temperature obtained in the pyrolysis zone is 1200 to ca. 1800°C. Carbon black formation is weakly endothermic. 

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