We will be at Tire Technology Expo!
We’re happy to attend the Tire Technology Expo!
It’s another essential event for the whole tire industry: three days, 220 exhibitors, and more than 130 speakers. Stop by our booth and meet the Contec team!
- Date: March 21-23, 2023
- Place: Hannover, Germany, Deutsche Messe
Listen to our CEO’s talk
On the first day of the expo, meet our CEO on stage! Krzysztof Wróblewski will give a talk titled, “The Way To Circularity In The Tire Industry”. Here is a snippet taken from his presentation:
“Substantial interest in sourcing sustainable feedstocks in the tire industry has arisen in recent years. In reality, the demand for these feedstocks in the tire and rubber industries is much larger than the production capacities pyrolysis companies can offer today. Rapid expansion in the pyrolysis industry is currently underway due to technological advancements and a solid track record in quality production. To ensure success in the long term, strong collaboration within the greater rubber industry ecosystem will be the catalyst for successful and sustainable business models.”
Stop by our booth – and meet Krzysztof.
Meet the Contec team
Visit our booth, nrC544 (near the delegate dining space), where you can meet our managers, sales, and technical staff.
They will answer all your questions about our unique Molten technology and recovered Carbon Black and its features. At our booth, we will have samples of our recovered Carbon Black. Check it out at our booth and take a sample home!
We’re excited to attend the event because of three main reasons.
- It’s a good opportunity to talk with experts from around the world about the future of the tire industry.
- It’s our first time as an exhibitor, and we will be happy to showcase our product.
- We believe it’s an opportunity to receive feedback and build relationships with all stakeholders. Cooperation is a strong foundation that will propel the entire industry toward carbon neutrality!
We look forward to seeing you at our booth, nrC544, or at our CEO’s presentation. Get in touch to learn more about our sustainable solutions.
We’re now part of the Recircle Awards
As a partner, we’re proud to support this event that recognises the circular economy efforts within the tire recycling industry.
We’re happy that the rCB field is developing, and this event is one of many to push innovation in companies, improving products and driving the manufacturing industry toward carbon-neutral production.
We’re also looking forward to this year’s ceremony, where 22 companies and policymakers in the industry will win awards for their sustainability efforts.
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We are pleased to join the Waste Management and Recycling Cluster!
The cluster engages over 136 members, including SMEs, universities, and NGOs. It’s an industrial ecosystem for the cooperation between waste management businesses and companies providing consultancy services, research, and development.
It also involves a scientific project called Recycle Academy, created in November 2015. Its goal is to create a ‘recycling society’ by educating the public and business entities operating in sensitive and specific sectors.
Collaboration and innovation are at the centre of what we do at Contec.
“With an unanimous decision of the Board of the Waste and Recycling Management Cluster the Contect company has been accepted as a member company.
The mission and activites of the company fit into to the Cluster’s strategy to support and propagate innovative solutions concerning circular economy.
The company has developed a novel technology to recover Carbon Black, oil, and steel from end-of-life tires through the pyrolysis process of waste tires, which allows to close circular value chains. Through its solution Contec is the leader of the industry transformation into circular economy.”
Katarzyna Błachowicz, member of the board, Waste and Recycling Management Cluster, Key National Cluster.
We couldn’t be happier to have joined this supportive group.
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Meeting with the Delta Energy’s team
We firmly believe that cooperation allow us to develop the entire rCB industry.
That is why we are very happy that we could visit the Delta Energy plant, which is located in Mississippi.
The exchange of experiences, but also good relations are crucial for the development of the entire industry.
Delta Energy and Bobby Lyles, Bob Genovese thank you one more time for the invitation!
We are a part of ASTM International
We’re happy to join ASTM International, founded as the American Society for Testing and Materials.
It’s a nonprofit organisation that develops and publishes approximately 12,000 technical standards, covering the procedures for testing and classification of materials of every sort. Contec became a member of the D36 committee working on the implementation of standards for quality testing of recycled Carbon Black or rCB.
By participating in the vote, we have a real contribution to the creation of new research standards.
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Contec’s CEO spoke at the Recovered Carbon Black Conference
November is an important month for the recovered Carbon Black (rCB) industry: more than 200 representatives of the industry gathered for two days, November 16th and 17th, to exchange insights during the Recovered Carbon Black Conference.
Organised by Smithers and Wolfersdorf Consulting, the rCB Conference offered important panel discussions, an exhibition hall for the industry’s players, and a series of presentations covering rCB business updates, regulatory compliance, pyrolysis oil, and technical breakthroughs.
In 2022, Contec was honoured with participating in the presentation headline, with our CEO Krzysztof Wróblewski speaking about technological advancements and collaboration to drive circularity in the tire and automotive industry.
The way to circularity in the tire industry: technology and collaboration
Collaboration and innovation walk hand in hand to achieve circularity.
Substantial interest in sourcing sustainable feedstocks in the tire industry has risen in recent years. In reality, the demand for these feedstocks in the tire and rubber industries is much larger than the production capacities pyrolysis companies can offer today. Rapid expansion in the pyrolysis industry is currently underway due to technological advancements and a solid track record in quality production.
To ensure success in the long term, strong collaboration within the greater rubber industry ecosystem will be the catalyst for successful and sustainable business models. What does the rCB industry need to succeed in bringing circularity to the tire and rubber industry?
There are many ways of answering this question: by starting with operational excellence, for example, it’s possible to optimise rCB usage, replacing higher percentages of virgin Carbon Black (vCB) — depending on the product.
Investing in Research and Development (R&D) is also another essential variable to boost circularity in the industry: since rCB is still under development, with collaboration, it’s possible to find out new introduction methods and new standards for the industry, using rCB to complement or substitute variable feedstock in different percentages.
About Contec: our collaborators support innovation
Contec is the only pyrolysis technology to use molten salts as a heat medium. Our plant has been in operation for over 4 years, and we’re planning to expand our Szczecin plant by the end of 2024.
Collaboration is at the heart of our purpose with circularity, and we collaborate with important players in the industry, such as Tyre and Rubber Solutions, to improve our rubber granulate and powder.
We also collaborate with Mars Mineral, Hosokawa, and many more, leveraging economical solutions to get market traction for rCB. This way, we can improve our feedstock composition and strengthen the tread reinforcement – elevating the usage of rCB.
Get in touch to learn more to collaborate with us.
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Carbon black tire grades: Sustainable opportunities for the manufacturing industry
Carbon black is an essential component for many industries, particularly tire manufacturing. However, producing virgin Carbon Black requires burning fossil fuels, which is unsustainable and environmentally damaging.
Knowing the properties of different carbon black grades used in tire manufacturing can help in identifying circular, sustainable options to virgin Carbon Black.
What is carbon black?
Carbon black (CB) is a common resource in the manufacture of common consumer and commercial products such as tires, plastics, inks, insulating wires, etc.
Virgin carbon black (vCB) is a synthetic industrially produced powder made up of tiny spherical particles, 10 to 500 nanometers (nm) in size. vCB consists of over 98 per cent elemental carbon.
vCB particles have a high surface area and energy that makes them fuse to form aggregates, which define the vCB structure. Short chains produce vCB of low structure, while hundreds of particles forming large and branched aggregates produce high structure vCB, as you can see in Figure 1.
The two aggregate structures have varying properties that determine their applications. For example, high structure vCB has better dispersibility and is good for reinforcing compounds. Low structure vCB is more black in colour making it suitable for use in pigments.
As a sustainable option to vCB, recovered carbon black (rCB), a product of recycling end-of-life tires with similar composition and properties, is on the market.
Common carbon black grades
Carbon black production involves the partial or complete combustion of hydrocarbons under controlled conditions in specially designed furnaces. Sprays of coal tar, petroleum oils, or gas, the common feedstocks are heated at temperatures between 1,420 – 1,980°C to vaporise carbon that cools to form carbon particles.
Changing the fuel and the combustion conditions produces vCB of different grades. Internal nanostructure, particle size, aggregate structure, surface area per unit mass, abrasion resistance, tint strength, and amounts of ash and other compounds differentiate the grades.
The oil furnace process can produce most grades and accounts for 95 percent of global vCB production. The thermal black process accounts for less than 5 percent of vCB, while the lamp black process and the acetylene black process produce less than 2 percent of vCB.Over 90 per cent of virgin carbon black finds its way into rubber products – mainly for tire-related products like tubes, treads, belts, and hoses. Common carbon black tire grades are N120, N234, N326, N330, N339, N351, N550, N650, N660, and LH30. Other industrial rubber applications for Carbon Black are molded and extruded products.
The other 10 per cent of vCB is used for UV absorption, as a conducting agent in plastics, inks, and coatings, or as a pigment.
What are the different grades of carbon black?
There are over forty vCB grades in the world. The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM D1765), has classified these grades based on their manufacturing process, particle size, surface area, aggregate structure, abrasion resistance, and extrusion. These grades also determine applications of vCB as you can see in Table 1.
| vCB Grade(ASTM designation) | Particlesize (nm) | Surfacearea (m2/g) | Applications |
| N110 | 15-18 | 124-130 | High reinforcement. Used in tire products with high abrasion resistance. |
| N134 | 20-25 | 145 | High reinforcement. Premium tread for passenger, bus, and truck tires. |
| N220 | 20-25 | 112-115 | High reinforcement, tear strength, abrasion resistance. Tread for trucks and passenger tires. |
| N234 | 24-33 | 125 | High reinforcement. Has many applications, like tread for trucks. |
| N330 | 28-36 | 76-80 | Medium-high reinforcement, good flex and wear properties. Tread, carcass, and sidewall compounds for bicycle, passenger, and truck tires and rubber goods. |
| N339 | 28-36 | 95 | Medium-high reinforcement. Passenger tire treads, body compounds for tires, conveyor belts, and motor mounts. |
| N550 | 39-55 | 39-41 | Medium-high reinforcement and smooth extrusion. Used in inner liners, carcass, and sidewalls for passenger tires, rubber goods, hose, and extruded products. |
| N660 | 56-70 | 34-36 | Medium reinforcement, good flex, and fatigue resistance. Used in inner liners, sidewalls, sealing rings, cable jackets for tires, and rubber molding and extruded goods. |
| N770 | 71-96 | 31-32 | Semi-reinforcing. Inner liners for tires and rubber goods. |
| N880 | 180-200 | 17-20 | Low reinforcement. Used for non-tire rubber and plastic products. |
| N990 | 250-350 | 7-9 | Low reinforcement, hardness, and tensile strength; high loading capacity and elongation. Used for tire inner liners and rubber and plastic products, like wire insulation, footwear, belts, hose, etc. |
Just as the manufacturing process and feedstock yield different grades of vCB, there are also numerous variables in recovered carbon black. rCBs can have different particle sizes, aggregate morphology, ash content, and surface area and activity. rCBs can also be a mixture of various vCBs, volatile hydrocarbons, and ash content, making them difficult to classify. Presently, all rCBs fall into a single class, despite their different properties.
Therefore, in 2019, the Recovered Carbon Black Congress in Berlin, agreed to consider rCB as new material. And the ASTM workgroup 36 is currently formulating tests and quality descriptions for rCBs.
Carbon black in tires
In the early 1900s, a few years after Goodrich Tire Company began buying Carbon Black to improve the quality of their rubber, Sidney Charles Mote and a team of scientists discovered that Carbon Black had a reinforcing effect on rubber products.
The addition of Carbon Black greatly improved the abrasion resistance and strength of tires. Within a few years, the use of Carbon Black rubber mixtures became standard industry practice for tire manufacturers.
Besides reinforcement, tire manufacturers use Carbon Black because it can absorb UV light, which breaks down rubber. It also acts as an ozone scavenger and limits oxidation to prevent cracking. Coarser semi-reinforcing Carbon Black tire grades conduct the heat away from treads and belts and prevent thermal damage.
By making tires more durable and functional, carbon black tire grades make car and truck driving safer. Tire manufacturers use 73 per cent of vCB globally. Now, end-of-life tires (ELTs) can serve as an alternative feedstock to produce sustainable carbon black and close the loop.
Recovered carbon black: Sustainable focus
People discard around 1 billion tires each year globally, which has become a major waste management problem. One solution is material recovery from ELTs to provide alternative sources of carbon black, steel, oil, and gas to the tire industry.
Recovered carbon black from pyrolysis is a suitable and sustainable alternative to vCB. Major tire manufacturers have begun replacing vCB produced from fossil fuels with rCB.
It’s because of the technical, economic, and environmental advantages rCB offers:
- rCB can provide 100 per cent replacement for rubber and non-rubber applications of vCB.
- rCB has few polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) compared to vCB.
- Local and regional collection and recycling can provide an assured source of rCB.
- Prices of rCB are stable as it doesn’t depend on fossil hydrocarbons.
- Prices for rCB are lower than vCB.
- Pioneer tire manufacturing businesses can enjoy a head start from rCB use.
- Reduction of carbon footprint by 80-90%. For example, Contec emits only 439kg CO2e/tonne of rCB, while carbon emissions are 2.5 tonnes CO2e/tonne of vCB production.
- Producers can transition to a circular economy to meet EU Green Deal requirements and UN SDGs.
The sustainability and performance of rCB will see it replace many virgin Carbon Black tire grades. At Contec, we enable tire manufacturers to do just this – by providing recovered Carbon Black, Oil, and recovered Steel from ELTs as sustainable options to current industrial production. Get in touch to learn more about our sustainable solutions.
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