Conversion of phenolic mixture to refractory resins: A resourcezation strategy for phenolic distillation residues

A new resourcezation way has been proposed to address the treatment challenges of the light phenolic distillation residue (LPDR) from the coal-based phenolic distillation residue. Herein, the LPDR, which was collected at 20 kPa and 220 degrees C from the phenolic distillation residue, has been further used to synthesize the phenolic resin (named as RPF) for MgO-C refractories. It is found that the conversion efficiency of crude phenol mixture to RPF is 71.3%, which is lower than that of pure phenol. To increase the conversion efficiency and improve the properties of RPF, the crude phenolic mixture was blended with pure phenol for the synthesis. The optimal addition mass ratio of phenol in the crude phenol mixture (phenol/total phenolic compounds) is determined to be 0.8, where the obtained RPF could satisfy or even better than the national standard. Further addition of 10 wt % of urotropine (HMTA) as curing agent and 9 wt% of ferrocene (Fc) as modifier (named as MRPF) are found to significantly improve the graphitization of RPF. Under these conditions, the DTG at temperature of maximum mass lose rate (Tmax) of MRPF was lower than that of commercial resin. The graphitization level was as high as 61.6% with the residual carbon rate up to 41.4%, which are higher than those of national standard. These findings provide insights for the resourcezation of the phenolic distillation residue.

Automated summary

A new resource utilization method was proposed to address the treatment challenges of light phenolic distillation residue (LPDR), and through optimizing the addition amount, the properties of synthesized phenolic resin were improved, achieving a higher level of graphitization that meets or even exceeds the national standard.