Pyrolyzed fuel oil (PFO) and coal tar was blended in the feedstock to produce pitch via thermal reaction. The blended feedstock and produced pitch were characterized to investigate the effect of the blending ratio. In the feedstock analysis, coal tar exhibited a distinct distribution in its boiling point related to the number of aromatic rings and showed higher Conradson carbon residue and aromaticity values of 26.6% and 0.67%, respectively, compared with PFO. The pitch yield changed with the blending ratio, while the softening point of the produced pitch was determined by the PFO ratio in the blends. On the other hand, the carbon yield increased with increasing coal tar ratio in the blends. This phenomenon indicated that the formation of aliphatic bridges in PFO may occur during the thermal reaction, resulting in an increased softening point. In addition, it was confirmed that the molecular weight distribution of the produced pitch was associated with the predominant feedstock in the blend.

Abstract
 1. Introduction
 2. Experimental
  2.1. Materials
  2.2. Blending of feedstocks
  2.3. Thermal reaction for producing pitch
  2.4. Analysis of the pitch and feedstock
 3. Results and Discussion
  3.1. Chemical characteristics of the feedstocks
  3.2. Experimental characteristics of pitch productionderived from PFO-coal tar blends
  3.3. Molecular weight distribution of producedpitch derived from PFO-coal tar blends
 4. Conclusions
 Conflict of Interest
 Acknowledgements
 References

• Byong Chol Bai(Center for C-Industry Incubation, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), Department of Applied Chemistry and Biological Engineering, Chungnam National University)
• Jong Gu Kim(Center for C-Industry Incubation, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), Department of Applied Chemistry and Biological Engineering, Chungnam National University)
• Ji Hong Kim(Center for C-Industry Incubation, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Korea University)
• Chul Wee Lee(Center for C-Industry Incubation, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), University of Science and Technology (UST))
• Young-Seak Lee(Department of Applied Chemistry and Biological Engineering, Chungnam National University)
• Ji Sun Im(Center for C-Industry Incubation, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), University of Science and Technology (UST)) Corresponding Author