Carbon black producer Orion SA has announced that it has signed a long-term supply agreement with Contec SA, which will provide Orion tyre pyrolysis oil to produce circular carbon black for tyre and rubber goods customers.
The agreement with Warsaw, Poland-based Contec further enables Orion to diversify its sources of tyre pyrolysis oil, commonly known as TPO.
“With the ConPyro TPO supplied by Contec, Orion will be able to make large-scale volumes of circular grades of carbon black that will supply growing demand from the world’s leading tyre and rubber goods producers,” Orion CEO Corning Painter said. “This is yet another way that Orion is accelerating the transition to a circular economy.”
TPO-based manufacturing is the only circular technology that is moving into industrial production to produce high-quality active carbon black. The process takes discarded end-of-life tyres and exposes them to high temperatures to produce a feedstock Orion can convert into virgin carbon black.
Orion says it is the only company that has made circular carbon black from 100% TPO as a feedstock. The company has also demonstrated that its circular products can replace virgin carbon black in many applications.
Since 2017, Contec has specialised in end-of-life tyre processing through chemical recycling, transforming discarded tyres into circular, sustainable raw materials. What sets Contec apart is its proprietary Molten technology, which utilises molten salt as a heat transfer medium.