Pyrolysis fuel oil (PFO) is used for the manufacturing of high-purity pitch for carbon precursor due to its high carbon content, high aromaticity, and low heterogeneous element and impurity content. Pitch is commonly classified with its softening point, which is most considerable physical property affecting to various characteristics of the carbon materials based on pitch, such as electrical and thermal conductivity, mechanical strength, and pore property. Hence, the softening point should be controlled to apply pitch to produce various carbon materials for different applications. Previous studies introduce reforming process under high pressure and two step heat treatment for the synthesis of pitch with high softening point from PFO. These methods lead to a high process cost; therefore, it is necessary to develop a process to synthesize the pitch with high softening point by using energy effective process at a low temperature. In this study, waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was added to control the softening point of PFO-based pitch. The pitch synthesized by the heat treatment with the addition of PET showed the softening point higher than that of the pitch synthesized with only PFO. The softening point of PFObased pitch synthesized at 420 °C was 138.3 °C, while that of the pitch synthesized by adding PET under the same process conditions was 342.8 °C. It is proposed that the effect of the PET addition on the increase in the softening point was due to the radicals generated from thermal degradation of PET. The radicals from PET react with the PFO molecules to promote the polymerization and finally increase the molecular weight and softening point of the pitch. In addition, activated carbon was prepared by using the pitch synthesized by adding PET, and the results showed that the specific surface area of the activated carbon increased by the addition of PET. It is expected that the pitch synthesis method with PET addition significantly contributes to the manufacture of pitch and activated carbon.

액화석유가스(Liquefied Petroleum Gas)를 연료(Fuel)로 하는 차량의 실제 운행단계에서 시동 꺼짐 현상 등이 발생한다는 소비자 민원이 접수 된 바 있으며, 최근 유통과정에서 녹 등의 이물질로 인한 소비자 피해 가능성이 제기되어 LPG 잔류물질(Residue) 항목에 대한 관리 필요성이 대두되었다. 본 연구에서는 LPG 국내생산 및 수입사 제품과 실제로 유통되고 있는 LPG의 잔류물질 특성을 연구하였다. LPG 잔류물질을 GC-MS를 사용하여 정성분석을 하였고, ICP-OES를 이용하여 무기물 성분을 분석하였다. GC-MS 분석결과 고무 제조공정을 용이하게 하기 위해 고무에 소량 배합하는 가소제(Plasticizer) 등이 분석되었다. 또한 ICP-OES를 이용한 무기물 분석결과 주로 LPG 생산 시 사용되는 소포제 등에서 유래된 것으로 추정되는 Si와 충전시설 등에 사용되는 그리스 첨가제 성분 등으로 추정되는 P와 Zn도 일부 검출되었다. 본 연구에서 분석된 LPG 잔류물질에 대해서는 녹 등을 유발할 수 있는 성분이 검출되지 않았지만 가소제 및 그리스 첨가제 성분이 LPG 연료계통에 영향을 줄 수 있으므로 적정품질의 고무류 사용과 저비점 그리스 첨가제 사용 확대가 필요할 것으로 보인다.

We demonstrated an effective way of preparing melt spinnable mesophase pitches via catalytic hydrogenation of petroleum residue (fluidized catalytic cracking-decant oil) and their subsequent thermal soaking. The mesophase pitches thus obtained were analyzed in terms of their viscosity, elemental composition, solubility, molecular weight, softening point and optical texture. We found that zeolite-induced catalytic hydrogenation under high hydrogen pressure contributed to a large variation in the properties of the pitches. As the hydrogen pressure increased, the C/H ratio decreased, and the solubility in n-hexane increased. The mesophase pitch with entirely anisotropic domains of flow texture exhibited good meltspinnability. The mesophase carbon fibers obtained from the catalytically hydrogenated petroleum residue showed moderate mechanical properties.

Spinnable pitches and carbon fibers were successfully prepared from petroleum or coal pyrolysis residues. After pyrolysis fuel oil (PFO), slurry oil, and coal tar were simply filtered to eliminate the solid impurities, the characteristics of the raw materials were evaluated by elemental analysis, 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MALDI-TOF-MS), and so on. Spinnable pitches were prepared for melt-spinning carbon fiber through a simple distillation under strong nitrogen flow, and further vacuum distillation to obtain a high softening point. Carbon fibers were produced from the above pitches by single-hole melt spinning and additional heat treatment, for oxidization and carbonization. Even though spinnable pitches and carbon fibers were processed under the same conditions, the melt-spinning and properties of the carbon fiber were different depending on the raw materials. A fine carbon fiber could not be prepared from slurry oil, and the different diameter carbon fibers were produced from the PFO and coal tar pitch. These results seem to be closely correlated with the initial characteristics of the raw materials, under this simple processing condition.