Development History of Precipitated Silica Industry

(1) Development History of International Precipitation Method Silica Industry

Due to the development of the petroleum industry, various rubber products that were originally made from natural rubber have started to be extensively produced using synthetic rubber. However, the mechanical strength of synthetic rubber is lower than that of natural rubber, so high-quality reinforcement fillers are necessary. As a result, high-quality reinforcement agents such as zinc oxide powder and carbon black have emerged, among which carbon black is made from energy sources such as natural gas and oil.

Starting from the 1930s, countries such as Germany, the United States, and the Soviet Union began researching the use of silica sand, which accounts for 6% of the earth's crust, as a filling agent to replace carbon black in the silicone industry. The United States has achieved industrial production for the first time since 1948. The oil crisis in the 1970s caused high oil prices, and Western countries continued to deepen their research on silicon dioxide. Silicon dioxide has achieved good development in production and application fields, and global production capacity has gradually increased.

(2) Development History of Precipitation Method Silica Industry in China

The precipitated silica industry in China started relatively late. In 1958, the first industrial device for precipitated silica was built and put into operation at Guangzhou People's Chemical Plant, but the production capacity was relatively small. In 1984, there were more than ten precipitation method silica enterprises in China, with an annual production capacity of 3500 tons and a production capacity of 2600 tons.

The rapid development of domestic rubber production in the 1980s drove the market demand for silica. After the production of a 10000 ton silica plant introduced in Nanchang in 1989, the annual production capacity of precipitated silica in China increased to 30000 tons and the output increased to 20000 tons in 1990.

After long-term accumulation in the initial stage, the precipitated silica industry in China began to develop rapidly in the 1990s. By 2007, the precipitated silica process technology in China had made significant progress. The high concentration sulfuric acid method replaced the dilute sulfuric acid method, achieving the complete reaction process in one reactor, and using steam direct heating instead of steam jacket indirect heating. The development of process technology not only improves thermal efficiency, but also facilitates the use of large reactors and DCS computer control.

In addition, with the substantial increase of the manufacturing capacity of domestic silica equipment, such as the large reinforced polypropylene box type automatic discharge filter press (the maximum filtering area has reached 500m2) and the large spray dryer (the annual production capacity of a single unit can reach 20000 tons), the equipment used in the 10000 ton production plant has basically realized localization, which not only significantly reduces the construction investment, but also improves the product quality, Reducing raw material and power consumption has created favorable conditions.

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