Ahead of this year's Recovered Carbon Black Asia 2025, we spoke with Sagar Mathur, Assistant General Manager - Strategy at Epsilon Carbon Private Limited, to get a sneak peek of what we can expect from his presentation on 'Success Stories: Incorporating rCB into Product Formulations' Here's what he had to say…



Q1. Your talk at the Recovered Carbon Black Asia 2025 will dive into Success Stories: Incorporating rCB into Product Formulations. Why do you think it's important for others in the industry to hear this message?

rCB is at a critical juncture of its journey towards becoming a viable alternative to virgin Carbon Black. While it is environmentally friendly, it has limitations when it comes to technical performance as it falls short on certain technical parameters. End users are sceptical of its impact on their product quality. This is principally due to the fact that its raw material – end of life tyres – is not consistent in its availability and selectivity. As a result, rCB is yet to achieve commercial scale adoption in product formulations in the rubber and plastic industries.
Unless rCB gains the trust and confidence of end users, especially tyre manufacturers, it will be difficult for the rCB industry to sustain its momentum. Large investments have been made globally in rCB production and thus it is critical that it achieves commercial scale adoption, else we will lose the opportunity to develop a sustainable alternative to virgin Carbon Black.

Q2. Can you give us an update on what's happening in your local market? What are the latest trends over there?

In India, the demand for rCB is growing in non-tyre segments (both plastic and rubber), while tyre manufacturers are testing it. At the moment, its finding application in non-sensitive segments such as Masterbatch, Solid tyres, non-critical plastics and conveyer belts. Its demand is driven mainly by value (i.e., it’s cheaper than virgin CB) rather than its sustainability benefits.
Interestingly, established rCB producers in India have invested in rCB production capacity expansion and have recently commissioned these capacities. Reclaim rubber producers are also looking at establishing rCB production units.  
Leading Carbon Black producers are exploring adding rCB to their portfolio, either as-is rCB or virgin CB blended with rCB (e.g., Terrablack by Epsilon Carbon)
Tyre manufactures are closely monitoring these developments, however there have been no major announcements, with the exception of JK Tyres who have launched a passenger car tyre made with sustainable materials, including rCB.
Ever since the Government of India launched the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme and allocated a high weightage to rCB compared to other products obtained from tyre recycling, the allure of incremental income (sale of EPR credits) has driven multiple tyre recycling companies to consider addition of rCB to their product portfolios.

Q3. Which challenges and opportunities do you see for the recovered carbon black industry in your local market?

In India, as anywhere else in the world, rCB producers face challenges in achieving a fair consistency in quality. It often is a balancing act, as, while there are measures that can be taken to improve and stabilise quality parameters, the cost of taking these measures increases the cost of rCB production and reduces its attractiveness to customers, most of whom are value driven rather than sustainability driven.
Furthermore, rCB producers are working to get their rCB qualified by various customers in both tyre and non-tyre segments. Long qualification periods mean that newly commissioned units cannot be ramped up quickly, hurting profitability and return on investment.
Nevertheless, considering that all major customers in Tyres and Non Tyres segments have their long-term sustainability goals in place, as far as Carbon Black is concerned, there aren’t too many alternatives other than rCB (and may be TPO derived vCB). Government support in form of EPR is an opportunity for incremental income without additional cost.
Furthermore, rCB producers in India are increasingly adopting captive green power, such as roof-top solar, waste heat recovery plant. This is very  

Q4. Looking ahead, what do you think will be some exciting developments in recovered carbon black or tire pyrolysis soon?

It's important that we as an industry work on improving the quality of rCB, starting with Ash content reduction, and then moving on to other parameters such as porosity, surface area, IAN etc. The solutions to these problems may lie in selectivity in tyre collection, and post pyrolysis treatment of rCB, while managing energy and equipment costs.
A reliable way to offer a stable sustainable product is to blend it with virgin Carbon Black in controlled amounts, such that the end user doesn’t have to worry about the quality consistency and blending operations. For this, Carbon Black producers must make greater investments of time, resources and knowledge in development of rCB, so that the blending ratios can be increased, which will allow them to pass on greater quantities of rCB as part of their blended grades of CB.
Another area of interest is usage of Tyre Pyrolysis Oil (TPO) as feedstock for virgin Carbon Black production. While technically possible, very low BMCI and very low flash point of TPO significantly drives up the cost of oil handling and CB production from it. Carbon Black producers are working to address this issue by blending TPO with conventional feedstock which is usually CBFS. However, blending with Coal Tar or Anthracene Oil offers greater

Q5. What hurdles does the tire pyrolysis value chain need to tackle in the next few years?

We already discussed quality consistency. In addition to that, there are other challenges in India.

• There is a lack of organised end of life tyre collection ecosystem. The unorganised nature of ELT collection creates challenges in accessing, selecting and accounting for end-of-life tyres. Multi-leg collection value chain adds to the landed cost of ELTs. This drives demand for imported ELTs that are cheaper and are relatively easy to avail, something that the Government is trying to curb to encourage recycling of local ELTs.
• Given the informal nature of the local industry, there are limited investments in technology innovation and equipment design and fabrication, due to lack of demand and/or willingness to pay for the same by end users. This is also a reason why international companies with advanced ELT recycling technologies have not invested in establishing local manufacturing operations that would make their offerings economically viable in the local market.
• Then, for entrepreneurs entering this segment, a major challenge is developing or accessing expertise in Carbon Black (both virgin and recovered) and its application. Limited participation from organised players across the tyre recycling value chain, right from engineering to business development adds to the challenge of entering this segment.
• To a certain extent, due to the factors described above, organised end users have not endorsed pyrolysis and rCB to the extent that would encourage large investments.
• Then, there is the challenge of tackling environment emission norms, not only for local/national standards, but also in line with international requirements. The regulations are evolving and there is a risk of unexpected increase in costs, whether it is in Capex or Opex.
• Finally, due to the reputation of a ‘polluting’ industry, typically there is a strong opposition from all quarters when one wants to set up tyre recycling operations. This leads to delays in project execution. Overall, it is very important for the organised members from the carbon black value chain to endorse rCB and invest in it, whether it is product development or setting up recycling operations. This will bring about a renewed interest from all quarters, from customers to suppliers, technology and engineering providers, equipment providers and governing bodies.

Q6. Are there any specific collaborations within or with the value chain that you're looking for?

Yes, very specifically:

• Collaboration with end users, especially Indian and Global tyre manufacturers for product and application development of rCB
• Collaboration with academia for product development and technology improvement
• Collaboration between carbon black producers and ELT ecosystem members
• Collaboration between tyre manufacturers and ELT collection value chain members