Calcium Carbide (Cac2)

Description

Calcium carbide is made from a mixture of lime and coke at above ***0C. It is made in an electric arc furnace.The pure material is colorless, however pieces of technical grade calcium carbide are grey or brown and consist of only ****5% of CaC2. A very high temperature is required for reaction.  The carbide produce is then crushed to smaller lumps typically around ****0 mm size. The content of CaC2 content is measured by measuring the amount of acetylene gas produced on hydrolysis. Typical standards are **5L/kg and **0L/kg. Impurities in the carbide produced are phosphides and sulphides.Its main use industrically is in the production of acetylene and calcium cyanamide.In China, acetylene derived from calcium  carbide remains a raw material for chemical industry, in particular for the production of polyvinyl chloride. Locally produced acetylene is more economical than using imported oil. Production of calcium carbide in our factory had a dramatic increase during last 5 years.