Let Primasonics Take The Worry Out Of Carbon Black Build Up And Removal

With sales in over 45 countries worldwide, it is inevitable that as well as eliminating particulate build up problems and enhancing material flow in our key industries such as Cement, Power Generation, Petrochemicals & Food, that other dry processing and storage industries now seek our help. One such industry is Carbon Black.

There are two ways in which this very fine black ‘powder’ can be manufactured. The two manufacturing processes are Furnace Black and Thermal Black and they account for nearly all of the world's carbon blacks, with the Furnace Black process being the most common. The Furnace Black process uses heavy oils as their source of feedstock whilst the Production Furnace system uses a closed reactor to atomize the feedstock oil under very carefully controlled conditions, for example, primarily temperature and pressure.

Around 8 million tonnes are produced per annum and used within a wide range of industries such as pigment and automobile tyres. Carbon Black is a somewhat hazardous material and there have been a the subject of a large number of published papers on the affects of human ingestion of carbon black particles

Because the material is classed as a Group 2B Carcinogen (possibly carcinogenic to humans) these papers deal with such topics as respiratory effects, genotoxicity along with the study of several forms of cancer such as oesophageal cancer, lung cancer, bladder and stomach cancers.

The International Carbon Black Association has published a very useful user’s guide, available in PDF format which includes reference to any human entry into a confined space (such as silos, hoppers and baghouse filters). If such human entry cannot be avoided then they strongly recommend that pre-testing for oxygen and carbon monoxide levels as well as for other toxic gases is carried out. Primasonics International now has carbon black clients who have significantly reduced the need for manual entry into such plant areas as silos and filters by installing our range of Acoustic Cleaners. These use sound waves to prevent material build up and eliminate blockages.

Therefore within a silo a suitably sized acoustic cleaner will prevent any side wall build up and bridging, a typical silo top installation is seen in photograph 1 (left).

Likewise by installing an acoustic cleaner in a baghouse filter, material build up and hopper pluggage are eliminated and in addition, filter bag life is significantly extended. A typical filter installation is shown in photograph 2 (right).

The Primasonics range of Acoustic Cleaners certainly eliminate carbon black particulate build up within a number of key plant prcesses and storage areas, thus eliminating the need for manual entry to remove these blockages and clean the plant. To read more visit our carbon black plant cleaning page.