Activation of waste tire pyrolysis carbon black by simulated fuel gas

Abstract

Waste tires are also known as “black pollution”, and pose significant risks to human health and ecosystems. The pyrolysis process can recover valuable products such as natural gas, oil, and pyrolysis carbon black (CBp), with CBp being the most important one. However, CBp from waste tires has a high degree of particle aggregation and low oil absorption value, making it difficult to further utilize. In this work, we propose a novel method to activate CBp by simulated fuel gas, which fully utilizes exhaust gas resources and enables the reuse of resources. The simulated fuel gas, composed of a mixture of N2 and CO2, was used to investigate the effects of activation temperature (700–1000 °C), activation time (2–5 h), flow rates (30–50 mL·min−1), and the content of CO2 in the simulated fuel gas (10%-90% (volume)) on increasing the specific surface area. The samples were analyzed using XRD, SEM, N2 adsorption/desorption, and Raman shift. The results indicate that the hybrid atoms and carbon atoms in CBp can absorb enough energy to open the closed pores, allowing the activator to fully react with CBp. This work demonstrates a feasible approach to improve the high value-added utilization of cracked carbon black.