Recovered Carbon Black Conference is returning in 2023, over 280 rCB representatives joined us at Recovered Carbon Black Conference 2022 as it sold out a month before. As Europe's leading rCB industry event, the conference provides a unique opportunity for delegates to get the latest industry information and network face-to-face with global experts
2022 highlights included:
Celso Magri, who has more than 20 years of experience in the chemical industry, has developed and launched products based on recycled sources for the automotive and consumer electronics industries. After joining Orion in 2020, he created the sustainability strategy for the rubber business at the specialty chemical company. Mr. Magri’s current focus is enabling the tire and rubber value chain to transition to the circular economy.
He has an MSc Engineering from University of Sao Paulo, an MBA from London Business School and is a certified engineer in Brazil and Germany.
Paul Ita runs Notch Consulting, a Massachusetts-based research company dedicated to the market research needs of the global specialty chemicals industry. Mr. Ita focuses on raw materials for the global tire and rubber industries, with a particular focus on carbon black, silica, and rubber chemicals. Through Notch, he publishes the Carbon Black World Data Book and the Carbon Black Quarterly Newsletter.
Krzysztof Wróblewski is a chemical and process engineer who gained his first pyrolysis experiences at Warsaw University of Technology as a member of research team and quickly became one of the designers of new technology at Contec. Taking part in the construction and leading the startup of the plant allowed him to implement and test new ideas. Now, as CEO, Krzysztof is still developing new solutions to perfect the process performance.
Tommi Pajala, MSc in energy technology and BSc in automation technology, has worked with pyrolysis and recycling technology for more than 20 years and founded the recycling technology company Ecomation in 2007. At the moment Tommi serves as the company's chief operating officer, responsible for product development, technology and the project operations. He is considered one of Finland’s leading experts in slow pyrolysis technology.
After finishing his chemical education (HBO) he started working as a R&D chemist and applications laboratory group leader. Later in his career he also finished an executive MBA in strategic marketing/general management. Getting in contact with customers and the market he decided to give his career a commercial twist and since then he has been working at the edge of sales, marketing and technical service, including a position at Cabot as technical service manager. In these positions he also gained a lot of international carbon black experience. He has been working for over 35 years in ink & coating related industries.
Alex Bowles is a final year PhD student at Imperial College, London. His research focusses on high-value product recovery from waste tyres, with particular focus on tyre derived activated carbon. Alex has been investigating tyre recycling for four years, and prior to his PhD, researched the potential of waterjet granulation of car tyres. Alex draws on the experience of his PhD supervisor, Dr Geoffrey Fowler. Geoff is a Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College, London, and has over 30 years of experience in the tyre recycling sector. Geoff’s research focusses on pyrolysis and manages a world-leading laboratory with 5 different pyrolysis reactors and a wide array of characterisation instrumentation.
Loïc graduated from the National School of Chemistry, Montpellier with a specialisation in Material Chemistry in 2011 and started a PhD with Hutchinson and the IMP laboratory in the INSA Lyon on the development of additives for the adhesion of silicone elastomers onto metals. In 2014 he joined the Research and Innovation Center at Hutchinson as Research Engineer and is in charge of the development of rubber materials to fulfil customers’ specifications and to develop new concepts/properties; he is also responsible for textiles. In 2021 Loïc took charge of the “sustainability program” for rubber formulation with the benchmark and assessment of new raw materials for the development of lower carbon footprint rubber formulations.
Vishesh Agarwal is CEO of Royal Carbon Black Ltd and has been involved in the management of the group since 2011. He is also a Director of the Association for Rubber & Tyre Recyclers across India (AIRTRA) and a committee member of both the NITI Aayog report on the circular economy in tyre recycling and the Ministry of Environment, Forest (MoEF) report on EPR for tyres. He is a panel member on BIS for making crumb rubber standards, a convenor of the BIS panel on rCB and a member of the ASTM committee on rCB. Mr Agarwal is a graduate of Babson College in Boston, USA.
Martin von Wolfersdorff is a consultant specialising in alternative rubber fillers and tire pyrolysis. He is in contact with over 320 tire pyrolysis companies globally and advises tyre manufacturing associations, tire manufacturers, tire collectors, refineries, pyrolysis technology providers & operators on the global tire pyrolysis industry and the marketing of recovered carbon black. Previously, Martin worked in the carbon black industry with Cabot, in the custom colour masterbatch industry with Americhem and in the white pigment industry with Huntsman Pigments. Martin holds a Dipl. Ing. (Univ.) degree in chemical engineering from the Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany.
Prof. Dr. Jorge Lacayo-Pineda is Head of the Expert Field for Materials Evaluation at Continental, Tires, and has hold different executive positions in the Materials Labs of Continental since 1998. He is Honorary Professor at the Leibniz University of Hanover and Visiting Professor at the Qingdao University of Science & Technology. He is Chairman of Sub-Committee D11.20 Rubber Compounding Materials & Processes of ASTM International, member of the US Delegation to ISO TC 45 – Rubber & Rubber Products, Convener of the ISO Working Group TC45/SC2/WG5 Chemical Tests of Rubber, and member of the Board Council of the German Rubber Society.
Pieter ter Haar is an expert in recovered carbon black (rCB), pyrolysis, and is a former rubber compounder. He has extensive expertise managing R&D for rCB companies in Europe and North America. After obtaining his Chemistry degree from the Hanze University (Groningen, the Netherlands) he worked as a Rubber Compounder for Fenner Dunlop Conveyor Belting in the Netherlands, where he was in charge of sustainability development of rubber compounds. Pieter joined Pyrolyx/cct Stegelitz in 2015 to develop, build, and manage the first R&D competence center fully dedicated to rCB research. He is one of the founding members of ASTM committee D36 on recovered carbon black, and in his current role as Vice Chair, he leads various task groups within the committee. Pieter is currently president of Terhaar Consulting Inc. in Ontario Canada and consults internationally on various topics related to sustainability, pyrolysis and recovered Carbon Black and is part of the advisory committee for “Recovered Carbon Black World”.
Katie Tuttle is a Global Marketing Manager for Sustainable Solutions at Cabot Corporation, responsible for overall program management and execution of sustainability related initiatives within the Reinforcement Materials business segment. Katie received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University and a Master of Business Administration from The University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School. Katie brings 10+ years of experience within the chemical industry, specifically in the plastics and automotive value chains, where she's held various roles in engineering and commercial functions.
