Patent ID: 7416641

Claim:
A system for processing scrap rubber to produce marketable end products, the system comprising: a. a scrap rubber pyrolysis system, comprising: i. a pyrolysis vessel receiving rubber shreds into a heating zone within the vessel and passing the rubber shreds as a bed through the heating zone under a constant temperature condition so that each portion of the bed remains within the heating zone for a constant residence time of sufficient duration to allow for complete pyrolysis of the shreds into carbon black and pyrolysis gas and to allow for desorption of the pyrolysis gas from the surface of the carbon black; ii. a centrifugal separation means for receiving the pyrolysis gas from the pyrolysis vessel and removing entrained carbon black particles from the pyrolysis gas; and iii. a condensate separation assembly receiving pyrolysis gas from the centrifugal separation means, the condensate separation assembly comprising a condenser receiving pyrolysis gas from the centrifugal separation means, the condenser arranged to condense the pyrolysis gas into a hydrocarbon condensate fraction in a liquid phase collected in a reservoir at a lower end of the condenser and a vapor fraction in a gas phase, wherein the vapor fraction contains entrained hydrocarbon condensate droplets, and the hydrocarbon condensate fraction has a selected composition determined by a selected equilibrium temperature maintained at a surface of the reservoir; and a secondary separator receiving the vapor fraction and removing the entrained hydrocarbon condensate droplets; b. a plasticizer oil purification system comprising: i. a mixing vessel receiving hydrocarbon condensate and mixing the hydrocarbon condensate with a filter aid under conditions which aggregates of particulate contaminants in the hydrocarbon condensate and the filter aid are formed; ii. a filter aid removal assembly for removing the aggregates of filter aid and contaminants from the hydrocarbon condensate received from the mixing vessel; iii. a polycyclic aromatic removal assembly receiving the hydrocarbon condensate from the filter aid removal assembly and removing polycyclic aromatics from the hydrocarbon condensate; and c. A carbon black purification and refinement system comprising: i. a jet mill for milling the carbon black into particles of a selected average size in the presence of dry air; ii. a carbon black screening assembly adapted to separate oversized contaminants from the milled carbon black; and iii. a magnetic separator adapted to remove ferrous particles from the milled carbon black.