Characterization of pyrolytic carbon blacks from commercial tire pyrolysis plants Original Research Article

Pyrolysis of used tires yields oil and pyrolytic carbon black (CBP). The tire pyrolysis process can be performed either in vacuo or at atmospheric pressure. The CBP recovered in both processes are different from the commercial carbon blacks used in the tire fabrication. Different spectroscopic methods such as ESCA, SIMS, Auger-spectroscopy and XRD were used to characterize CBP obtained in commercial tire pyrolysis plants operating in vacuo and at atmospheric pressure. The CBP characteristics were compared with those of rubber-grade carbon black. CBP from vacuum pyrolysis was found to be closer in their chemical nature to commercial carbon black than CBP from atmospheric pyrolysis.