Coal tar derivatives company Epsilon Carbon will soon set up an environmentally-friendly carbon black facility in Karnataka, southern India. The company reveals that the first phase of the new, US$121.1 million carbon black facility is expected to be commissioned by Q3/FY21 with an initial capacity of 115,000tonnes per annum (TPA) and expects to further expand the facility’s overall capacity to over 300,000 TPA by FY24. The new facility will reportedly use waste Coke Oven Gas from a steel plant as a fuel, thereby lowering its CO2 footprint.
Epsilon Carbon’s Managing Director Vikram Handa said the company’s core advantage in the Indian Carbon Black sector lies in the security of its raw material – “it encourages us to plan our future expansions to offer stable long-term supplies to our customers.”
Carbon black gets approximately 93% of its total volume demand from rubber-related industries, such as the tyre industry. As a global consumer of carbon black products, the tyre industry uses the supply as a reinforcing filler to improve the longevity of tyres. Carbon black may also be used as a black pigment in printing inks, paints and varnishes, while conductive carbon black can be used to manufacture electrodes and carbon brushes.