The Importance of Feedstock and Process Control on the Composition of Recovered Carbon Black

Pyrolysis has emerged as a commercially viable material recovery process capable of supporting circularity in the tyre industry. Here it is demonstrated that a high degree of control can be imparted over the UK tyre waste stream and that statistically different feedstocks can be used to produce different grades of rCB based on their ash contents. The lower ash content rCB produced from truck tyres had superior in-rubber properties, closely matching those of the N550 reference. Silica, absent a coupling agent, is known to be less reinforcing than CB, lowering the reinforcing behaviour of the high ash content rCB variant produced from car tyres. This justifiably places ash content within the classification and specification development discussion. However, proximate analysis of UK waste tyres suggests that typical rCB ash specifications of <20 wt% are unrealistic. Such limits would force producers to consider modifying process conditions to allow the deposition of carbonaceous residues to artificially dilute the ash content. This study investigated this process philosophy but conclusively demonstrated that carbonaceous residue is more detrimental to rCB performance than ash content. As such, carbonaceous residue content demands far more attention from the industry than it is currently afforded.