rCB Material Standards: ASTM Draws the Line on Recovered Carbon Black
rCB Material Standards
ASTM International has published its first standard dedicated to recovered carbon black, adding a formal definition of the material to a portfolio that already spans more than 12,800 standards in use worldwide.
The new document, D8178, is the product of ASTM Committee D36, which was created in 2017 specifically to build quality and safety infrastructure for an rCB sector that was then still finding its feet.
Since its formation, that committee and its sub-committees have worked through terminology, guidance documents, test protocols and recommended practices written for the particular characteristics of recovered material rather than borrowed wholesale from the virgin furnace-black world.
Why a Definition Matters
Recovered carbon black is produced mainly by thermally decomposing used tires, and it is gaining ground as a sustainable input for rubber compounds, plastics and pigments. Until now, buyers had no agreed vocabulary for separating a genuine engineered product from an unprocessed by-product.
D8178 closes that gap. It draws explicit lines between char, carbon black as defined by ASTM D3053, raw recovered carbon black, and refined rCB — four materials that had too often been discussed as if they were interchangeable.
The threshold is meaningful. Only material that is free of metals and fibres, and that has been milled to improve its properties, may be described as recovered carbon black. Only that grade is considered suitable for semi-reinforcing duty in rubber compounds.
Testing Follows Terminology
The standard also points to a wider body of work maintained by Committee D36 and Committee D24, covering ash content, sulphur levels, pH and other physical characteristics of rCB.
Methods for judging how carbon black actually behaves inside a rubber compound are referenced as well, including morphological assessment and screening for specific compounds such as Benzo-α-Pyrene.
That emphasis on in-rubber behaviour is deliberate. The classical characterisation toolkit — structure and surface area analysis — does not always predict how recovered material will perform once compounded, so ASTM is working to identify techniques better matched to rCB itself.
The committee structure matters here too. Standards work for recovered material is split across ASTM Committee D36, which was stood up for the rCB sector itself, and Committee D24, the long-established home of carbon black standards — so the new terminology sits alongside, rather than apart from, the conventions the rubber industry already uses.
A Commercial Signal, not Just a Technical One
For producers, a published standard converts a marketing claim into a specification a procurement department can write into a contract. For compounders, it reduces the qualification burden that has slowed adoption of recycled fillers.
Full definitions and the complete text sit with ASTM, as access to the document is governed by copyright.
Turn a Published Standard into a Bankable Plant
Standards reward operators who can hit a specification consistently, every batch, at commercial tonnage. That is an engineering problem long before it is a sales problem, and it is where most early-stage pyrolysis ventures come unstuck.
Klean Industries addresses it with a KBR turnkey delivery model: performance-guaranteed output, 100% bankable, and the project risk carried by the contractor rather than the owner. The proof is commercial-scale, including an operating recovered carbon black plant in Poland producing milled, metal-free material of the kind D8178 now describes.
Two routes are open. License the technology and build with your own team, or have the plant delivered turnkey and handed over running to specification. Talk to us about which fits your feedstock, your offtake and your balance sheet.
Contact Klean Industries » GO.
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