What key trends do you see playing out this year for the rCB sector?

Most trends that we have seen in the years before are becoming more important and are followed by many stakeholders. Finding an application which can cope with larger percentages of rCB would help the industry. Another trend is the collaboration between pyrolysis companies, carbon black producers and rubber manufacturers to characterise such a complex substance like rCB better. This is happening for instance in different ASTM-committees.

Tell us a bit more about the themes you will be focusing on in your presentation.

We'll have a look at the pyrolysis of a model curing bladder compound, which we have made in our rubber lab in Cologne. That means we know exactly the composition of the material, which is not the case if end-of-life tires are pyrolyzed. The reclaimed filler was tested in the formulation, from which it was obtained.

These bladders are used during the vulcanization of pneumatic tires and other rubber articles, don't contain fabrics and steel, are not contaminated by road debris or sand, and can be made from one compound. That means this article is less complex compared to a tire and therefore may be easier to recycle.

The interesting observation from our evaluation was that the reclaimed filler performed in this application better than virgin furnace blacks. In my opinion we haven't seen this in the case of rCB from end-of-life tires yet.

I will share my conclusions with the audience and look forward to having very fruitful discussions during the conference.

What are you looking forward to hearing your fellow speakers addressing in November?

Because of my background in material development, I always enjoy seeing detailed rubber evaluations in different elastomers and hearing how compounds with rCB work in rubber processing like calendaring, extrusion, and injection moulding. Furthermore, I’m always interested to learn more about environment, health, and safety topics in the field of ELT-pyrolysis.