What is the Calcium Carbide?

Calcium Carbide is also called calcium acetylide, which is a chemical compound having the chemical formula of CaC2. Mainly, it is used industrially for the production of calcium cyanimide and acetylene and Ethylene. The material in its pure form is without color however the industrial calcium carbide compounds are either brown or grey and consist of about 80–85% of CaC2 (the remaining is CaO – calcium oxide, Ca3P2 – calcium phosphide, Ca3N2 – calcium nitride, CaS – calcium sulfide, SiC – silicon carbide and more). In trace moisture presence, the carbide technical-grade emits an unpleasant odor which is reminiscent of garlic and also the material explodes in presence of certain amount of water.

CAS Number for Calcium Carbide is 75-20-7 and it has the EC number of 200-848-3

The high temperature that is required for this reaction is practically not achievable by traditional combustion. So, this reaction is performed in an electric arc furnace using graphite electrodes. By weight, the produced carbide product will contain around 80% of the calcium carbide. Also, carbide is further crushed to produce small lumps that can range up to a maximum of 50 mm, and the impurities are concentrated in the finer fractions.