The production of pitches from the decanted oil derived from catalytic cracking of petroleum

摘要

Pitches are raw materials rich in the carbon element and essentials to produce a range of materials including carbons and graphite. Derived from organic precursors, the pitches can be obtained through a simple distillation at temperatures around 400°C. Apart from conventional applications, such as carbon anodes for aluminum smelting and carbon electrodes for the steel industry, the pitches are also employed in high technology areas such as carbon fibers, graphite, composites or carbon-carbon products. The market for anodes and electrodes has been dominated by coal tar pitches, but the petroleum.pitches can be a good alternative to compete as an economical alternative once the production of coal tar is rapidly decreasing in the entire world. Numerous precursors derived from oil have been used for industrial production of pitches, but decanted oil from catalytic cracking units are so far the most used one. A distiller of large capacity (75 liters) was built and the pitches produced showed properties adequate to their use as binder pitches.