Study on Dehydration Process of Wet Natural Rubber by Single Screw Dehydrator and Properties of Dry Natural Rubber
In this work, one self-invented closed single screw dehydrator was used to dehydrate wet natural rubber, instead of current three opened crepers and one hammer mill at home and abroad. The dehydration technology and the properties of the obtained dry natural rubber were studied. The results show that single screw dehydrator can simplify dehydration process. The water consumption of single screw dehydrator is 20% of current productive technology, meaning a lower wastewater discharge and treatment cost of wastewater. The moisture content of dehydrated natural rubber is lower than 20%, a good dehydration effect. The dry natural rubber dehydrated with single screw dehydrator has an improved thermal-oxidation ageing resistance whether dried by hot-air or microwave. The thermal-oxidation ageing resistance of natural rubber dried by microwave is better than that of hot-air drying, the value of initial plasticity (P0) and plasticity retention index (PRI) are 29.3 unit value and 19.26 unit value greater than that of SCR5 in GB/T 8081, respectively.