The BlackCycle consortium organized a workshop with 120 worldwide industry leaders, legislators, academics, H2020 project coordinators, and institutional representatives at the Michelin Technology Center in Ladoux, France, close to the end of November 2021. The workshop's goal was to explore and share ideas about how to implement a circular economy in Europe.

BlackCycle stated during the event that it has created the world's first sustainable carbon blacks (sCB) for use in tire applications in a carbon black furnace reactor using oils derived from the pyrolysis of end-of-life tires. The cyclical process that BlackCycle intends to implement is the creation of this sustainable material from end-of-life tires.

Blackcycle Project – Presentation Flyer. | Document by BlackCycle.

The usage of pyrolysis oil, supplied by Pyrum Innovations in Germany, as a carbon black feedstock was also successfully examined in Orion Engineered Carbons' innovation department. The finding was that the qualities of a rubber compound would not change if a fossil-fuel-based carbon black was replaced with carbon black manufactured from oil derived from ELT pyrolysis.

Even the most demanding applications, according to BlackCycle, will maintain high performance in areas such as durability, conductivity, and rolling resistance. According to the examination of the green compounds, the rubber compounds will be processed in the same way.

Photos by BlackCycle.

The consortium thinks that sCBs are a drop-in solution that does not require any changes to rubber compound compositions or process parameters, such as those utilized in mixing, molding, or curing.

The European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation initiative provided financing to BlackCycle.

To learn more about the recent workshop by BlackCycle and the initiative itself, proceed to the official website of BlackCycle.