What is pine tar used for? Let’s find out the answer together!

Before talking about the question “What is pine tar used for”, we want to introduce some information about pine tar. Pine tar is a liquid mixture with high molecular hydrocarbons, which is distilled from pine root at 240-400 degrees Celsius. Its main components are resinous acid, cresol, phenol, turpentine, asphalt and so on. 

Pine tar is a kind of dark brown to black viscous liquid with a strong burnt smell. By placing the wood in a closed container, heating it to high temperatures and removing water and volatile organic compounds, we can get pine tar through the above process. In addition, it is soluble in ethyl ether, ethanol, chloroform, and other organic solvents, but insoluble in water.

What is pine tar used for?

Pine tar is usually used as a softener for rubber industrial products, which can increase the plasticity of rubber material is helpful for the dispersion of the compounding agent in the rubber material, and promotes the addition of various required shapes. It also can accelerate the rubber mixing process, easy to roll, extrude, mold and so on.

Pine tar can improve the processability of high rubber compounds, and improve the elasticity and wear resistance of vulcanized rubber and finished products. Meanwhile, it also can increase the service life of vulcanized rubber. To rubber, pine tar not only has a good softening effect but also has a better effect of preventing char, which can increase the safety of mixing operation. Just due to the addition of pine tar, the early vulcanization phenomenon won’t happen, and won’t hinder the effect of the accelerator.

Pine tar is also used in wood as a preservative, and is also used in the manufacture of ships, electrical appliances, and fishing net cables. What is pine tar used for? Now we can get the answer. It's really useful!

Preparation method of pine tar 

There are many methods to producing pine tar, we will just introduce one traditional way. The following is the specific operation method.

1. Loading: Cut the loose root with a saw to remove the soil and impurities into 30-70 cm long, cut it into 3-7 cm thick pieces, and put it into the steel cage. Then hook the loaded steel cage vertically into the kettle, and then bulk root material to the kettle mouth, and finally cover the kettle cover with clay to seal the gap.

2. Dry distillation: Put the charcoal into the combustion chamber and ignite it. Add carbon time and again. We must stop adding carbon when white smoke appears from the condensation pipe mouth. Then close the ventilation hole and the mouth of combustion outside, which can reduce the temperature in the furnace and prevent white smoke from emitting. 

3. Unloading: Clear the kettle cover along the sealing clay, open the kettle cover, appropriately sprinkle water in the kettle to cool it, and two people use a long handle iron hook to hook the steel cage together to put the charcoal out of the kettle. Using a long-handle iron scraper to remove and clean the carbon and impurities in the airway, then the material can be re-loaded.

4. Collecting oil: After the distillation is completed, the brown crude oil on the upper layer of the separator oil barrel can be collected. The remaining red mixture mainly composed of wood vinegar can be retained in the barrel, and the wood vinegar can be precipitated and divided again during the next section of distillation to collect crude oil.

This is the whole process of producing pine tar. But we want to say that this method is not environmentally friendly. It not only contains benzene, phenol and a toxic taste, but also destroys the trees, especially the three wastes of the refining process is serious. Now there is a new patent to produce an odorless pine tar that is non-toxic, odorless and low cost. But now we can’t get the specific production process.

Conclusion:

In the end, we want to conclude our essay on the topic of “What is pine tar used for”. Pine tar is a byproduct of the decomposition of pine wood at high temperatures. Pine tar is more applied in the field of rubber, and it is also used as formaldehyde in medical, wood, and other fields, but not very much. In this essay, we introduce a traditional way of producing pine tar, which is not very friendly to the environment.