© 2025 Wolfersdorff Consulting Berlin - Image showing Jean-Paul Bouysset at ETRA Conference 2024
Dear colleagues & friends of recovered Carbon Black,
After the February 2025 fireworks of announcements and good rCB news, welcome to your March 2005 dose of curated recovered Carbon Black and related news. The views and opinions in this newsletter are my own.
We currently have7.086 subscribers and we also currently have 920 members in the LinkedIn rCB group Martin & friends: recovered Carbon Black "rCB" and tyre pyrolysis
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Overview
Wastefront starting construction of Sunderland plant
Highlights from Tire Technology Expo 2025
Upcoming: ETRA Conference 2025
Upcoming: AZuR Partner Meeting at Synthos in Schkopau, Germany
Klean Industries announces collaboration with Viva Energy
Pyrum Innovations & SUAS Group ready to start construction
Wastefront starting construction of Sunderland plant
A month ago, Wastefront announced a strategic investment by International Airlines Group (IAG). Last week, the Port of Sunderland UK published on LinkedIn this inspiring picture of Wastefront breaking ground on the Sunderland facility:
Image source: Port of Sunderland UK
The construction of Wastefront's Sunderland site is in two phases, of which the first is commissioned in 2026 and the second already in 2027.
This schedule is 2 years later than initially announced in 2022. However, this is the very first time a European project development company with external pyrolysis technology supplier (undisclosed) that has accomplished securing of ELT supply (Gateway Resources), product offtake (Vitol, Weber & Scheer), external EPC services (Technip Energies) and now also part-funding (IAG).
Wastefront plans to commission 4 facilities in the near future, which would produce 128m tons of TPO¹ per year and 90 ktpa of sustainable aviation fuel ("SAF"). The TPO yield for SAF is 70%, meaning that about 35% of the ELT granulate or about 26% of the whole ELTs can be converted into SAF.
But I also see a limit of ELT availability. Even if the entire ELT volume in the UK would be pyrolysed by Wasterfront, it would only cover about 1,6% of the 2025 UK aviation fuel demand. To cover for 10% of UK SAF demand by 2030 with ELTs, we would need to pyrolyse more that the entire ELT volume of the ETRMA scope.
So, while there does not yet seem to be a clear pathway for 100% SAF with ELTs only, there definitely is a pathway upwards for UK ELT pyrolysis!
¹ Wastefront calls the product tyre derived oil ("TDO").
Prospects for recovered Carbon Black 2024 - August 2025 update
Wolfersdorff Consulting Berlin
Highlights from Tire Technology Expo 2025
I spend 3 very enjoyable days at Tire Technology Expo & Conference ("TTX") in Hannover. TTX is the biggest event for tyre production and tyre raw materials.
Here are my highlights for tyre circularity and sustainable fillers:
Continental presenting Vision 2030 keynote
Continental has already been working on post industrial and post consumer tyre recycling for a long time, but the company had not yet presented a wholistic strategy vision. With this Vision 2030, Continental has caught up with Michelin and Bridgestone.
Michelin only accepts sustainable products with chains of custody that ensure physical connectivity (no mass balance allocation across group & sites).
This one has me kind of on the fence. I do understand the criticism of NGOs, activists and consumer organisations against products that are mass balance allocated green credentials but do not have physical green credentials. I do understand the transparency Michelin intends to create. However, for many sustainable materials like TPO, supply capacities and supply-chains are not established yet. These materials benefit from mass balance allocation until supply chains are built.
Michelin accepts higher price for sustainable materials if cost reduction pathway is secured through scale-up / industrialisation
Image source: Michelin
This came as a positive surprise in the joint presentation of Michelin with Regom. And what Sander VERMEULEN , Michelin VP of End-of-Life Rubber Recycling Business, presented makes sense. Many innovative and sustainable materials are in what I call a "mascara market", with low supply volume and high price. This is acceptable if the price comes down with economies of scale. Nice move by Michelin!
Best TTX coffee
The best Barista coffee at TTX was from Timo Unewisse on the Asahi Kasei booth! 😉
Best TTX dinner event
Already for the second year, the best TTX dinner event was by Birla Carbon. The Birla Carbon team shared the strength with selected friends, customers and industry partners. John Loudermilk and John Davidson inspired us with their talks. And at our tables we had great company and deep conversations, along with delicious Italian food. Thank you team Birla Carbon!
Image source: Birla Carbon
Presence of rCB industry at TTX
The recovered Carbon Black industry was very present at TTX with Reoil Sp. z o.o., Circtec, Contec S.A. (also with a booth and a great conference presentation) and Bolder Industries.
Joseph Hallett from Birla Carbon presented about dispersion kinetics of Sustainable Carbonaceous Materials ("rCB"), a new and important piece of research as sustainable fillers can only do their work when they are distributed and dispersed properly.
Upcoming: ETRA Conference 2025
The week after next will be the 30th anniversary conference of the ETRA European Tyre Recycling Association in the Le Louise Hotel in Brussels, Belgium.
I have fond memories of my first ETRA conference in 2015, which was the starting point of my career as market scout and carbon materials consultant.
Jean-Paul BOUYSSET (title image), who started his career 2 years before I was born, has again organised the conference sessions for chemical tyre recycling by pyrolysis and devulcanisation. I am looking forward to presenting again and participating at the conference discussions! See you in Brussels!
Upcoming: AZuR Partner Meeting at Synthos in Schkopau
Already the day after tomorrow is the AZuR-Netzwerk partner meeting at Synthos in Schkopau, Germany.
Christina Guth is the coordinator of the AZuR network, which brings a lot of positive energy to tyre circularity and tyre recycling.
I am contributing to the chemical recycling workgroup and I am also currently working with a smaller group on a development project of rCB in plastic masterbatches, which we will present on the AZuR booth at the K – The World's No.1 Trade Fair for Plastics and Rubber in October 2025.
Klean Industries announces collaboration with Viva Energy
Last week, Klean Industries Inc and Viva Energy Australia announced a collaboration. Viva Energy ordered a pre-engineering study for a 80 ktpa ELT TPO & rCB facility in Australia.
This is great news for Australia as other projects seem to run slow. Australia has almost 500 ktpa ELTs arising per year, of which about 140 ktpa are OTR mining tyres. There also are about 200 OTR landfill sites, where precious OTR mining tyres can be "mined".
Viva Energy plans to process the TPO in its Geelong refinery, one of the two remaining refineries in Australia. With no remaining tyre production in Australia, the rCB might go into non-tyre rubber, into plastics or into export markets.
Pyrum Innovations & SUAS Group ready to start construction
Pyrum Innovations AG and SUAS GROUP announced last week that they will start construction of their JV operation in Vřesová, Czech Republic, in Q2 2025.
Pyrum Innovations increased both the total capacity (from 20 ktpa to 23 ktpa ELTs) as well as the company's share in the JV (from 30% to 49%).
With 8 ongoing projects, Pyrum Innovations are at #1 of the Prospects for recovered Carbon Black leaderboard of future rCB production facilities! Congrats to Pascal Klein and his team!
Watch my ETRA presentation on Youtube:
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