Orion showcases circular carbon black made from end-of-life tires

Orlando, Fla. — Luxembourg-based specialty chemicals manufacturer Orion SA showcased specialty new carbon black grades produced from end-of-life tire pyrolysis oil at NPE2024 in Orlando.

The product matches the performance of fossil-based carbon black for wire and cable applications, the company said at NPE2024. Carbon black is used to tint, colorize, provide reinforcement, conduct electricity, increase durability and add UV protection.

A global drive to electrification, with most of its momentum in Europe, is creating increasing demand for the product, Martin Dauch, Europe, Middle East and Africa director of marketing for polymers, told Plastics News.

Tests show the new circular grades have the same conductivity properties, high purity level, "jetness" and tinting strength as regular specialty carbon blacks.

Compliant with European and international food-contact standards, the new circular blacks are also suitable for piping, film, fiber, packaging and automotive applications.

The material can be used for cables that transfer energy from wind and solar farms, Dauch said. There is also demand for the product in residential settings.

"The consumption of energy is increasing drastically worldwide," he said. "[Increased] demand in the chemical industry … for electricity in the future will be quite drastic. … Cable plays a very big role."

The materials come in a range of low to high voltage, with higher-voltage cables able to be used in submarine applications like offshore wind farms supplying power to the mainland, Dauch added.

"Wire and cable is an up-and-coming market for us," said Kevin Milks, marketing manager of polymers, battery and special applications.

New residential and commercial construction in the U.S. uses low to medium voltage, he added.

"Our customers report the new circular blacks are meeting the same performance requirements as regular specialty carbon blacks," Milks said in a news release. "We're eager to understand our customers' concerns … and develop grades to address their specific performance requirements."

The company broke ground in April on a new facility in La Porte, Texas, southeast of Houston, which will produce acetylene-based conductive additives for lithium-ion batteries and other applications.

The facility, expected to be complete by mid-2025, will quadruple Orion's capacity to produce acetylene-based additives for carbon black, Milks said. The acetylene will be supplied by Equistar Chemicals LP, a subsidiary of LyondellBasell.

Acetylene, a colorless gas that Orion's production process turns into powder, is "a beautiful thing for CO2 emissions because the acetylene molecule itself has no oxygen, so it's not going to bring CO2, just carbon and nitrogen," Milks said, adding that the processing of the chemical will emit CO2.

Orion also presented carbon blacks that improve performance by modifying rheology and imparting UV resistance and conductivity characteristics. The grades disperse in polymers and show very low levels of ionic contamination, the release said.

The company sees its production of materials and additives for cables, whether they're made of circular materials or not, as enabling sustainability to support "the transformation to a more sustainable world," Dauch said.

The company is working to reduce its own carbon footprint by making "more out of less," he said. The process of making carbon black has "always been said to be quite dirty. … [It's] quite CO2-intensive."

Since the oil used to make the additive is a byproduct of the fossil fuel industry, carbon black "captures" the carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere, Dauch said.

Circular carbon black is still a "very low percentage of sales," he said. "Not only because of the availability of the feedstock but certainly also because of the unwillingness of the market to pay for it."

Ultimately, the only thing that will bring up demand for sustainable options, Dauch said, is regulation.

"That's what we see in Europe," he said. "Things [will] start moving when regulations are put in place … to enforce design for recycling and recycled content in parts … and forcing the market to go into one direction."

But, Dauch added, "Regulation is something that also might hinder developments that would be useful."

The European market is "facing a difficult time because [its] industries are not competitive with high prices and energy [costs]," he said. "If it's just one region progressing on this and the others aren't following, it's a tough time. … As long as there is a competitor of ours that is not using high-value, high-priced sustainable products, it's not competitive.

"It's a challenge to implement regulations that allow enough freedom," Dauch said. "The market of its own venture will not [progress], at least not at the speeds required."

For now, Orion is focus on making ground for the future, he said. "At the end of the day, we need somehow to form solutions to get carbon neutral. … That is one path."

Feedback from customers helps Orion to "understand their needs and to see which road to follow. … There are many ways to tackle it, and we're offering, more or less, all of them."

Whether those regulations come to the U.S. market "depends on who sits in the White House," Milks said. "We can't maintain the pricing we need to make the technology that reasonable until we're actually told that we have to do it."

Besides regulation, "a complete loss of current supply … or … governmental incentives" to buy consumer products like EVs could help, Milks added.