Europe's traditional carbon black market may be seized by 10-20%

Recently, consulting firm Emerton released a research report titled "The Potential Release of Recycling Carbon Black". The report explores in depth the huge potential of recycled carbon black (rCB) as a substitute for traditional furnace carbon black and points out its key role in driving the tire industry towards carbon neutrality.

The report mentioned that waste tire pyrolysis technology, as an environmentally friendly and sustainable waste tire treatment method, is gradually being favored by the industry. This technology not only effectively recovers used tires, but also significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions during the rCB production process, which is only one-fifth of that of traditional fossil-based fillers.

According to the Carbon Black Industry Network, global demand for carbon black has climbed to approximately 18 million tons in 2023, with a market value of US$18 billion to US$20 billion. Among them, the demand for carbon black in the European market is particularly strong, with an annual demand of approximately 2.7 million tons, accounting for 15% of the total global demand, equivalent to a market size of US$3 billion.

Emerton further predicted in its report that in Europe, rCB is expected to replace 10-20% of the traditional carbon black market, that is, annual consumption is between 250,000 and 550,000 tons, which will bring economic value to the industry of 265 to 530 million US dollars. However, the report also points out the challenges faced by rCB. Because its quality is insufficient compared with traditional furnace carbon black and contains more impurities, this limits its use in high-end applications, such as tire tread compounds and other fields to a certain extent. Despite this, Emerton is still optimistic about the prospects of rCB, believing that with the continuous deepening of research and development work and the advancement of pyrolysis technology, the production process of rCB will be improved and the quality will be improved, which is expected to expand its market application scope.