The image shows Anil Nandakumar (Birla Carbon) and me wrapping up rCB Asia 2026 in Bangkok.
The Smithers Tire & Rubber Conferences rCB Asia 2026 in Bangkok brought together the global recovered Carbon Black community, from tyre manufacturers and carbon black producers to pyrolysis operators, technology providers and application experts.
We had a truly global attendance including colleagues from USA, Europe and Australia in addition to our Asian colleagues.
In our wrap-up panel talk, Anil Nandakumar (Marketing Head Asia at Birla Carbon) and I (co-founder of the rCB Conferences) saw an industry that has become real and that is now scaling, especially in Asia.
The conference presentations confirmed that direction and also showed where we must be honest: Capacity is not qualified supply, analytical purity does not deliver application performance and char is not automatically rCB. There are no shortcuts. We have to begin with the customer application, engineer a consistent product & service solution and then build the process and the supply chain capable of delivering it at scale.
Here is my personal, concentrated deep dive into the 5 major rCB industry topics:
❶ Scale: rCB is industrial now.
Asia is leading the global rCB industry by capacity growth. However, due to unclear rCB definitions, true rCB production still lags behind char production. And, in consequence, tyre producers still do not find the product volumes at the quality they require.
“As of right now, we are one of the largest commercial scale pyrolysis operators in the world with continuous-process technology.” Jeff Shiue , ECO Infinic Co., Ltd.
“Nameplate capacity is obviously not effective capacity. No one is operating at 90%. Few are at 70% or above. Many are at 50% or below.” Paul Ita , Notch Consulting, LLC
“For the industry as a whole, the volumes are not there today. Consistency and quality are also not there today.” Frances Arns , Michelin
“rCB is when it works.” Martin von Wolfersdorff , Top Carbon
“I think the Asian market is much further developed than the rest of the world ... two-thirds of all pyrolysis plants in the world are in Asia.” Niels Raeder, RCB Nanotechnologies GmbH
“In the tyre, that’s one of the areas where we’re right now at 5% to 6% replacement. Lab testing says we can get to 15%.” Tony Wibbeler, Bolder Industries
❷ Consistency: There are no shortcuts for rCB.
Consistency matters more than producing one exceptional batch. Process control starts with feedstock and must continue through every production step into pyrolysis and post-processing. Every new scaling step will expose new bottlenecks, including pelletising.
“You have an impression that you are processing a homogeneous stream of tyres, which is not the fact.” Przemyslaw Zaprzalski, RECYKL GROUP
“If you’re not going to invest in your technology, if you’re not going to invest in your feedstock, if you’re not going to invest in your processes and your regulations, how are the big MRG customers ever going to use it? It’s not going to happen.” Anil Nandakumar , Birla Carbon
“The reality today … is that the quality and the consistency is not at the level that’s needed in order to incorporate recovered carbon black into new tyres at substantial levels.” Frances Arns, Michelin
“Even though we use the exact same ELTs … the rCB that comes out is not exactly the same.” Jeff Shiue , ECO Infinic Co., Ltd.
“Sustainability opens the door. Repeatability closes the sale.” Ravi Rathi , Capital Carbon - The Green Revolution in Black
"This is the Starbucks strategy. Make the same average coffee (or rCB) everywhere." Martin von Wolfersdorff, Top Carbon
“Consistent pellet quality will give you around a 15% to 30% price premium over powder.” Nandakumar Nagothkar , Ecomak Systems
❸ Performance: Start with the application.
rCB is an engineered product. Producers must understand the requirements of specific tyre, rubber, plastics and coatings applications rather than merely sell a pyrolysis output. Application performance and customer requirements define the rCB production process through reverse engineering.
“I had a product. No one had anything. Ultimately, I said: This is the product I want. I worked backwards.” Tony Wibbeler, Bolder Industries
“The (application) requirement is known. Only that has to be translated into the rCB specification." Biswajit Paul, Ralson Shine Carbon Ltd.
“There is no point in having a product which does not meet the specifications of what our customers really want.” Anil Nandakumar, Birla Carbon
“We were asking the wrong question. We asked how to improve the process. We should ask: What does the customer need?” Martin von Wolfersdorff, Top Carbon
“An rCB supplier creates a testing laboratory and gets into the shoes of the rCB off-taker.” Akash Desai , KBR, Inc.
❹ Service: rCB is a package.
rCB is not just a product. It is a package of product with application, qualification and supply-chain services. Customers need compounding support, regulatory compliance and supply dependability.
“We had to set up a laboratory and put our own compounders in place to pre-compound with our customers.” Tony Wibbeler, Bolder Industries
“The customer will only pay for results.” Martin von Wolfersdorff, Top Carbon
“We need a stable product available at high volume globally to incorporate into production around the world.” Frances Arns, Michelin
“If you take away the work of blending and adjusting recipes from the tyre manufacturers, they are happy to pay more.” Niels Raeder, RCB Nanotechnologies GmbH
❺ Profit: Collaborations make sustainability profitable.
Sustainability must pay. Only profitable rCB attracts the investment needed to qualify, scale and supply global customers from multiple regional sources. Cross-regional collaborations can turn rCB into a resilient and scaling business.
“Sustainability will never work without profitability.” Niels Raeder, RCB Nanotechnologies GmbH
“A tyre company will buy a lot more from each individual supplier if they know they’ve got a secondary source.” Tony Wibbeler, Bolder Industries
“We are expanding our capacity not only because we believe this industry can provide profit, but because this expansion will help drive the entire industry forward.” Jeff Shiue , ECO Infinic Co., Ltd.
“Nothing that I showed today could have happened if we did it alone. We’re moving faster because we’re moving together.” Ana M. Arce , Bridgestone Americas
"The Asian market splits into price-led spot business and quality-led contract business; trying to serve both can leave a producer neither cheap enough nor qualified enough." Ravi Rathi , Capital Carbon - The Green Revolution in Black
“We need partnerships and supplier ecosystems across all the regions in which we operate." Frances Arns, Michelin
“We’re all building an industry together.” Tony Wibbeler, Bolder Industries
rCB is real. Now it has to work consistently, commercially and at scale.
If you are building an rCB plant, developing an application-ready rCB product or qualifying a new rCB source, let’s work together to turn a technical promise into your profitable business. Book a Discovery Call with me.
And let’s continue our conversation at Smithers Tire & Rubber Conferences rCB Europe in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2026. Bring your project. Bring your toughest question.
Let’s make rCB work.
Enjoyed the article? Save it rather than liking it.
Let Martin & Smithers interview you!
Read about the evidence based Top Carbon "50 over 50" ranking list!
