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

Abstract

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.