A novel approach of waste tires rubber utilization via ambient air direct current arc discharge plasma

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Waste tires rubber utilization is one of the most important problems worldwide that affects environmental and energy aspects. In this work, we propose a method for obtaining ultrafine carbon product, as well as mixture of methane and synthesis gas, which is based on the generation of an electric arc plasma in an open-air environment. During arcing the resulting gas flow screens the reaction zone, which prevents the oxidation of the feedstock and synthesis products. This approach allows avoiding a vacuum and gas equipment as a part of a plasma reactor, which greatly simplifies its design and reduces the specific energy consumption. As a result of a series of experiments, two types of products were obtained: 1) ultrafine carbon powder containing micro and nanoscale objects with a graphite-like structure; 2) a mixture of gases, which contains up to 27, 15, and 3 vol% of methane CH4, hydrogen H2 and carbon monoxide CO, respectively.