Process and reactor for removing impurities from carbon material

Abstract

A process and reactor for removing impurities from a carbon material, involving providing a carbon feed into the electrothermal reactor; providing a gas into the reactor; passing the carbon feed through the reactor in a direction; heating the carbon feed using one or more electrodes; volatizing non-carbon material of the feed with the heat; and discharging the purified carbon material at the second location. So purified, the carbon material may be battery-grade. The feed may be passed through the reactor in a generally horizontal direction. The velocity of the feed in the reactor may be controlled to achieve a select resident time sufficient to volatize a desired amount of impurity. The process and reactor may be configured to inhibit back-mixing of the feed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.