Zinc oxide is a very flexible compound known and famous for its wide range of uses and applications. In order to create this amazing compound, there are different types of manufacturing process, each with its own advantages. Here’s everything you need to know about two of the most common zinc oxide production methods known by zinc oxide producer.
Direct Process (French)
The first production process type of zinc oxide is called the direct process or known as the French process. This type of process is a traditional and one of the most popular methods of manufacturing zinc oxide. In the direct process, zinc metal as the raw material would be put into a furnace with a temperature around 1200 degree Celsius.
This process is done in order to make the zinc metal melt and then vaporized, resulting in zinc vapor. This zinc vapor then would react with existing oxygen and then produce particles of zinc oxide. After that, the workers would collect these particles and then would be processed again in order to make them equipped with desirable advantages and properties.
This zinc oxide production process is known by zinc oxide producer because it produces zinc oxide with high levels of purity and amazing chemical reactivity. These two are needed by industries who are looking for zinc oxide with superior quality such as ceramics, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals industries.
Indirect Process (American)
Another most common technique of manufacturing zinc oxide is the indirect process or the American process. Thermal decomposition is needed in this process in order to create zinc vapor from zinc ores or residues. Zinc vapor that created from this would get combusted to get zinc oxide fumes.
These zinc oxide fumes then would get collected by the workers and then cooled. After that, zinc oxide particles would be formed and then would be refined and purified to obtain the needed properties. The indirect is often favored over the direct one due to its lower production costs and high level of efficiency, perfect for large-scale production.
Those two methods are most known by the zinc oxide producer. There are also other methods like wet chemical process and spray pyrolysis process, but the most popular are still the direct and indirect process. Each method would create zinc oxide with different properties, depending on the needs of the industries.