Recovery Process for the Recycling of Waste Carbon Black

Impurities removal from waste carbon black was carried out to produce high-grade carbon black. A lot of hydrophilic carbon black is produced as a byproduct of the hydrogen production process by flame decomposition of water. Due to its impurity content such as sulphur, iron, ash and etc., it can only be used as low-grade carbon or burnt out. High-grade hydrophilic carbon black is 3-5 times more expensive than oil-based carbon black because of its process difficulties and requires pollutant treatment. Hydrophilic carbon is normally used far conductive materials for batteries, pigment for plastics, electric wire covering, additives for rubber, etc.. In these applications, hydrophilic carbon must maintain its high purity. In this study magnetic separation, froth flotation and ultrasonic treatment were employed to remove impurities from the low-grade hydrophilic carbon black. As results, the ash, iron and sulphur content of product decreased to less than 0.01wt.%, 0.0lwt.% and 0.3wt.% respectively, and the surface area of product was about 930 $m^2$/g.