Global Status Of Carbon Black

Carbon black is used in the tire industry as an irreplaceable component in tires. The current feedstock’s utilized in carbon black production are fossil fuel-based resources, hence susceptible to volatile oil prices in addition to the associated high CO2 emission. According to the ORION Sustainability Report 2020 and Notch Consulting, the global demand for carbon black is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.5% from 2020 to 2025. Also The carbon black market worldwide had a value of some 17.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. It is forecast that the carbon black market size will reach some 25.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2027.

Carbon Black Recycled From Car Tires

Until now, waste tires have been used mainly for recovering energy sources: Only small proportions of the carbon black contained in these tires are recycled, since mineral ash accounts for around 20 percent of its content. A new process developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP is able to isolate almost all of this ash – allowing both the carbon black and the minerals from the ash to be reused.

Around three kilograms of carbon black – also known as industrial soot – are found in a standard car tire. Here’s the problem: To produce one ton of carbon black, we need approximately 1.5 tons of fossil resources and vast quantities of water; the process generates up to three tons of carbon dioxide. It would make complete sense, then, to recycle the carbon black found in end-of-life tires. This is a tremendous source of raw material: Around four billion end-of-life tires have accumulated at landfill sites already, about another 1.8 billion add to the pile every year.

Until now, we have mainly recovered oils, which are in turn used as an energy source for industrial processes or as a raw material in refineries, from these tires – just like from engineered rubber. The carbon black recovered during the pyrolysis process, on the other hand, remains largely unused: Mineral ash, consisting of the additives – primarily silicate compounds and zinc components – used to produce tires accounts for up to 20 percent of this carbon black.