Ahead of this year's Recovered Carbon Black Asia 2024, we spoke with Phil Hall, Principal Consultant, Rubber and Elastomers at Smithers, to get a sneak peek of what we can expect from his presentation on 'The emergence of Recycled Carbon Blacks rCB’s-A route to Market ' Here's what he had to say…To facilitate a mindset, change within the industry towards adopting rCB’s within automotive and non-automotive applications requires a strong technical and commercial justification. Alleviating legitimate concerns that the product is of the required quality and provides the necessary performance prompts the need to anticipate the questions posed by the industry. Having a structured, logical technology roadmap provides a clear, step by step approach to providing the required answers and delivers a strong argument for change.
Q2 What do you think will be some of the most interesting advancements in recovered carbon black/tire pyrolysis in the near future?I feel that improvements in the rCB morphology and quality to match that of traditional high performance, high reinforcing carbon blacks will provide a change in momentum towards adopting rCB’s.
Q3 What are the challenges the recovered carbon black value chain has to overcome in the next few years?Changing mindsets and gaining “buy-in” from the tyre and non-tyre sectors technical and commercial community is, in my opinion, the major challenge we face.
Q4 What do you believe will help the acceptance of rCB’s and accelerate their introduction?To support change and promote investment in new technology and the use of recycled materials such as rCB’s requires support from regional government’s. This support could be in the form of both legislation and/or financial incentives.
Targeting the introduction and validation of rCB’s in less safety critical applications, may help provide a “stepping stone” towards the broader acceptance of rCB’s within the automotive industry
