MATERIALS | CARBON BLACK
Right: A micronisation unit within Black Bear Carbon’s production facility at Nederweert in the Netherlands
NEPtune-range, Black Bear is able to supply carbon blacks that need to be in compliance with EU regulation no. 10/2011.” Black Bear currently has a production capacity of 5,000 tonnes/y at its facility at Nederweert, in the Netherlands. Leunissen says the company is planning an expansion and expects to be able to announce new projects early next year. Germany’s Pyrolyx is another developer of technology for the extraction of carbon black from end-of-life tyres and claims to be the market leader. It announced in late August that it was commencing construction of a recovered carbon black (rCB) plant at Terre Haute, Indiana, in the US. When completed, the plant – which Pyrolyx claims will be the most advanced of its kind – will produce close to 13,000 tonnes/y of rCB, as well as pyrolysis oil and steel. The company already has a plant in production in Germany, which is operated by its CCT Stegelitz subsidiary. The two plants together will consume around four million used tyres each year. Niels Raeder, CEO of the Pyrolyx Group, says that the company has already signed long-term purchase contracts for first carbon black production from the new plant.
Below: Internal view of the Pyrolyx tyres-to-carbon black produc- tion plant at Stegelitz in Germany
Greener blacks Another “green black” start-up to appear on the scene is Monolith Materials, which has developed a process to make carbon black using natural gas feedstocks and electric plasma arc technology. John Reese, VP of Sales & Marketing, says the company has made great strides in the past 12 months. “Due to the purity of the natural gas feedstock versus the traditional oil-based furnace process, Monolith will be able to bring to market a unique line of specialty products for the plastics marketplace,” he says. “Additionally, the Monolith process has demonstrated a 75-90% improvement in environmental performance in the areas of CO2
,
NOx and SOx versus the furnace process.” Reese says Monolith plans to construct a
production facility in Hallam, Nebraska, in the US, which is intended to be operational in early 2019. Initially, it will be able to provide blacks with particles in the 40 to 100nm size range. “Over time this range will be expanded to allow for finer particles down to 20nm in size,” he says. Currently, Monolith is operating a demonstration plant near San Francisco, from where it is providing a wide range of samples to compounders. “One of the unique advantages Monolith enjoys is the ability to provide high purity carbon blacks across a wide spectrum of particle sizes,” Reese says. “For instance, many of the FDA materials on the market today from the furnace process are finer in particle size (20 nm) due to the temperatures needed in the furnace process to control the PAH levels. We have made and have received FDA status (US FDA 21 CFR 178.3297) for a carbon black with a particle size in the 80nm range, or equivalent to an ASTM N762 carbon black. This will lead to many advantages for the plastics com- pounder, or masterbatch supplier, including less energy intensive mixes and the ability to load the compound at higher carbon black levels versus incumbent furnace FDA products.” He goes on to say that Monolith believes it will be able to deliver multiple products with unique combinations of particle size, performance and purity that have not previously existed. He also
28 COMPOUNDING WORLD | November 2017
www.compoundingworld.com
PHOTO: CCT STEGELITZ
PHOTO: BLACK BEAR CARBON
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