Black Carbon

In the art of producing carbon black by a pyrolytic process, the hot gaseous effluent (about 1200" F.) from the pyrolysis reactor containing the suspended carbon black product is cooled to temperature in the order of about 400 F. This is generally accomplished by a quenching operation consisting of contacting the eflluent near the exit of the reactor with a spray of water. The cooled efiiuent is then conveyed to a recovery system and therein the carbon black is separated by gravitational separatory means such as cyclones to effect recovery of the bulk of the product. In order to recover the greatest amount of carbon black from the effluent and additionally in order to obviate creating a nuisance by discharging the carbon black containing gases from the cyclone separators into the atmosphere, it is customary to filter the gases through cloth or fabric bags. This method of filtering as practiced in the prior art primarily sufiers in that it quickly induces impairment of the mechanical strength properties of the filter bag and or severely limits the choice of fabric material.