Sustainable Development Goals
PROJECT INFORMATION AT A GLANCE:
Project Status:
Operated 2008–2025; divested
Organizations Involved:
Klean Industries
Services / Equipment:
Design & Engineering, Turn-Key DBC, Due Diligence, Supply Chain Management, Carbon Management, Component Supply
We began its recovered carbon black journey in 2003, testing carbon-upgrading technologies and industrial applications. This case captures the next 17 years of practical development: plant design, laboratory and production-scale trials, product qualification and long-term offtake relationships. The central commercial lesson is that premium rCB depends as much on knowing the customer and specification as it does on engineering the equipment.
Between 2008 and 2025, the center connected testing and tolling with the industrial relationships needed to sell qualified products. The result is more than a machinery catalogue: it is equipment and product-development know-how informed by practical market demand.
A tire pyrolysis reactor produces a carbon-rich solid, but raw pyrolysis char and qualified recovered carbon black are not interchangeable products. The starting material’s composition and consistency affect its potential applications, while industrial users require fit-for-purpose properties, dependable processing and reliable delivery.
Customers considering rCB upgrading therefore faced two linked questions: which equipment and processing sequence would produce the required grade from their particular char, and whether buyers would accept that product on commercially workable terms. An equipment quotation alone could not answer either question.
Prove the product and process before specifying the production line.
We used its testing and tolling center to assess customer materials at laboratory and production scale, develop product characteristics and translate findings into equipment and process requirements. The aim was to resolve feedstock suitability and customer-grade objectives through testing rather than assume that every char would respond identically to one standard line.
Our integrated upgrading scope covers material handling, homogenization, milling, classification, pelletizing, drying and packaging. For pelletized rCB, practical choices such as particle-size control, process temperature, binder selection and drying configuration determine handling properties and product consistency. These are connected decisions, not isolated machine purchases.
Link technical qualification to actual demand.
Product development was paired with our network of carbon black users, technical evaluators and long-term buyers. Through Klean Carbon, the group also provides a commercial channel for grade matching, sampling, trials and customer discussions. Buyer requirements guide product format and finishing decisions well before equipment is committed.
Move from a test-center operating model to global technology delivery.
Following 17 years of testing-center activity, we divested the facility in 2025 to concentrate on technology licensing and deployment, while retaining its accumulated engineering, product-development and commercial know-how. Read Klean’s announcement on its global technology licensing focus »
Our separate TyreNova tire-pyrolysis technology is deployed through its KBR alliance. That relationship should not be read as automatic KBR ownership, licensing or performance responsibility for every stand-alone downstream rCB upgrading system.
Our work in recovered carbon black began in 2003, with early testing of processing technology and industrial applications. The 17-year period from 2008 to 2025 addressed here represents a distinct phase of plant and equipment design, pilot and production-scale testing, tolling, product qualification, and the development of offtake agreements. Our offtake agreements collectively exceeded the output capacity of several facilities internationally.
That commercial network was built through repeated customer contact, technical conversations, sample evaluations and an understanding of how carbon black is actually purchased and used. Our relationships with industrial carbon buyers are a major competitive advantage, with companies actively seeking suitable rCB products through its Klean Carbon platform.
For an inexperienced project developer, learning carbon black grades, compounding requirements, qualification cycles and the tire industry’s procurement language can be a costly barrier to market entry. Our assessment is that building comparable customer access and offtake capability from scratch can take five to seven years. That is time during which capital is committed but a product may still lack a qualified buyer. The value of our experience is to bring product, market and engineering knowledge together earlier in the investment process.
Our rCB upgrading systems typically achieve investment payback in less than two years under suitable feedstock, product pricing, utilization and offtake conditions. This is our project-experience and economic assessment, not a guaranteed return for every installation; the project-specific basis is developed through paid engineering and commercial evaluation.
The center’s divestiture marked a change in how we deploy that experience, not the end of the relationships, technology expertise or market-development capability established over the preceding decades.
1. An rCB development history dating to 2003.
Early technology and application testing led into 17 years of plant design, production-scale trials and customer-led product development.
2. Buyer access determines project economics.
Our offtake exceeds several plants’ combined capacity, and inexperienced developers can face five to seven years building comparable technical and commercial relationships.
3. Integrated know-how supports faster commercialization.
Equipment specification, product qualification, customer access and our typical sub-two-year payback assessment are considered together, with returns established for each project.
These are selected achievements and commercial lessons. Additional testing, engineering and customer-specific insights are available through an appropriate engagement with Klean.
If you operate a tire pyrolysis plant or plan to develop one, we can help connect your char quality and processing requirements with the grades, customer conversations and buying criteria that determine whether the resulting rCB has a viable market. Experience developed over decades can reduce costly trial-and-error and help define a commercially purposeful upgrading project.
For new equipment developments, our paid Detailed Equipment Quotation (DEQ) establishes a project-specific preliminary configuration and investment basis, followed where appropriate by a Detailed Feasibility Study (DFS) and Front-End Engineering Design (FEED). Material testing, toll processing, existing-plant assessments and offtake development can be scoped to the assignment. Performance commitments, financing and returns depend on the defined project and agreements, not a blanket promise.
Discuss Your Recovered Carbon Black Project with Klean >> GO.
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ABOUT THE INFORMATION PRESENTED
This case describes our historical rCB testing and product-development center and its continuing technology offering. Historical activities, market-entry estimates and typical investment-return statements reflect our experience and assessment; customer-specific material properties, equipment performance, contracts and commercial economics are addressed within an agreed engagement and appropriate confidentiality arrangements.
This project addresses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by considering the goals and associated targets illustrated by the WBCSD’s Tire Industry Project (TIP). TIP provides a framework for action that outlines impactful pathways for the tire sector to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To learn more about how our approach, solutions, and technologies contribute to advancing the SDGs, please review the report “Sustainability Driven: Accelerating Impact with the Tire Sector SDG Roadmap”.
