THE CHANNEL PROCESS

This process is only of historical interest, because not more than 5% of the blacks are produced via this route. In this process, the feed (e.g., natural gas) is burned in small burners with a limited amount of air. Some methane is completely combusted to carbon dioxide and water, producing enough heat for the thermal decomposition of the remaining natural gas. The two main reactions could be represented as:

The formed soot collects on cooled iron channels from which the carbon black is scraped. Channel black is characterized by having a lower pH, higher volatile matter, and smaller average particle size than blacks from other processes.