Continuous process for industrially producing mesocarbon microbeads

Abstract

Mesocarbon microbeads are continuously produced by the steps of: (1) mixing a matrix pitch, mesophase microspheres, and a solvent in which the pitch will dissolve but the microspheres will not, thereby to prepare a liquid mixture of a solution and dispersion; (2) processing the mixture in at least two stages of liquid cyclones, thereby to separate it into light and medium-weight liquids and a heavy liquid containing most of the microspheres; and (3) evaporating off the solvent from the heavy liquid thus obtained, thereby to obtain the microspheres as mesocarbon microbeads. The solvent is evaporated off from the light liquid to recover the pitch, and the medium-weight liquid is recycled to step (1) and (2).