Systems and processes for pyrolyzing waste plastics, including, in one or more heating stages, heating a waste plastic from an initial temperature to a peak pyrolysis temperature, and, in a final pyrolysis stage, providing heat input sufficient to maintain a temperature of the waste plastic at a pyrolysis reaction temperature less than the peak pyrolysis temperature and maintaining the waste plastic at the pyrolysis reaction temperature for a time period to convert a portion of the waste plastic to a pyrolyzed product and a pitch. The process further includes recovering the pyrolyzed product and recovering the pitch.

There is provided a process and system for producing carbon fiber products. The process can involve deasphalting a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock, which can contain native asphaltenes, to produce a solid asphaltene particulate material, which can be further treated to produce the carbon fiber products. In some implementations, the solid asphaltene particulate material can be extruded in the presence of a polymer. In some implementations, the solid asphaltene particulate material can be chemically treated with a chemical agent including a Lewis acid, an oxidizing agent and/or a reducing agent before extrusion. In some implementations, the process can further produce activated carbon fibers.

The present invention provides a system for producing mesophase coke from an isotropic pitch. The system includes a reactor having a first heating zone to carry out pretreating of the isotropic pitch by operating at a temperature of 250° C.-350° C. under atmospheric pressure. The reactor further includes a second heating zone to carry out heating of the pretreated isotropic pitch by maintaining the temperature of 350° C.-500° C. under the atmospheric pressure to obtain mesophase pitch. The reactor includes a third heating zone to carry out heating of the said mesophase pitch by maintaining the temperature of 500° C.-800° C. under the atmospheric pressure to obtain mesophase coke. The system further includes a pusher unit adapted to physically move the container from the entry zone to the exit zone to obtain the mesophase coke.

Provided are a method for manufacturing a high yield and high performance mesophase pitch and a high yield and high performance mesophase pitch manufactured therefrom by hydrogenating, mesophase formation, thin film evaporation, solvent-extracting, filtering and then drying to obtain only mesogen components in flow-domained mesophase pitch and then mixing the mesogen components with an isotropic pitch as a solvent component. Further, the high yield mesophase pitch of the present disclosure exhibits high spinnability while maintaining whole anisotropy and exhibits a much higher production yield than existing mesophase pitches.

The present disclosure relates to a process for preparing carbon fibers. The process involves blending a carbon nano-material with a carbon material to obtain a homogenous blend, heating the homogenous blend to obtain mesophase pitch having particles with reduced mesophase sphere size followed by spinning the mesophase pitch to obtain the pitch fibers. The pitch fibers are then carbonized to obtain the carbon fibers. The carbon fibers prepared by the process of the present disclosure have improved tensile properties as compared to the conventional pitch based carbon fibers.

A method for forming mesophase pitch can include applying a stimulus to a first amount of coal tar to form a first amount of mesophase pitch. The stimulus can include one or more of an electromagnetic field (“EMF”) or a magnetic field. The method can further include evaluating a characteristic of the first amount of mesophase pitch, changing a parameter of the stimulus in response to evaluating the characteristic of the first amount of mesophase pitch, and applying the stimulus exhibiting the changed parameters to a second amount of coal tar to form mesophase pitch.

A process for the reuse of oilfield drilling waste with an natural affinity for oil which has had at least a portion of the contaminants removed using a remediation technology. The drilling waste can be further refined to ensure the waste meets a desired particle size distribution and thereafter sent for reuse by mixing the drilling waste with hot bituminous tar and thereafter using the liquids phase in roofing materials. A method of mixing the drilling waste with conventional fillers is also described to create a blended mixture of drilling waste and conventional fillers to create a new hybrid filler which is mixed with hot bituminous tar for use in roofing materials.

A method of producing advanced carbon materials can include providing coal to a processing facility, beneficiating the coal to remove impurities from the coal, processing the beneficiated coal to produce a pitch, and treating the pitch to produce an advanced carbon material such as carbon fibers, carbon nanotubes, graphene, resins, polymers, biomaterials, or other carbon materials.

A process and apparatus for the continuous conversion of isotropic carbonaceous materials into anisotropic mesophase pitch is disclosed. The invention disclosed herein addresses the need for lower production costs compared with traditional batch mesophase conversion of isotropic pitch. A unique thermal processing and in-process separation of reacted mesophase from the continuous matrix of fresh or partially reacted isotropic pitch is provided. Potential uses are for further continuous processing into carbon fibers or carbon form densification.

Systems and methods of production for consistently sized and shaped optically anisotropic mesophase pitch from vacuum residue, one method including supplying processed vacuum residue to an extruder; heating the processed vacuum residue throughout a horizontal profile of the extruder from an inlet to an outlet of the extruder; venting hydrocarbon off-gases from the extruder along the horizontal profile of the extruder from the inlet to the outlet of the extruder; and physically shaping the consistently sized and shaped mesophase pitch at the outlet of the extruder for production of carbon fibers.