Application of recovered Carbon Black (rCB) by Waste Tire Pyrolysis as an Alternative Filler in Elastomer Products

Abstract

The increasing global accumulation of End-of-Life (EoL) tires and the growing demand for fossil industrial Carbon Black (CB) call for sustainable alternative solutions. In this context, tire pyrolysis and the resulting recycled raw material recovered Carbon Black (rCB), are considered potential alternatives. In the study, various rCBs were incorporated into new elastomer compounds using a laboratory internal mixer and their properties were investigated. The compounds were selected based on examples of applications such as bicycle inner tubes and hydraulic membranes. By comparing the in-rubber properties of rCB-based compounds with CB reference compounds, an initial assessment of the potential use of rCB for the chosen products was derived. Compared to industrial carbon black, the use of rCB leads to a reduction in performance. Although increasing the filler content partially compensated for the mineral content in rCB and led to a slight improvement, it could not fully offset the performance loss.

Keywords

Recycling / Waste tires / recovered Carbon Black (rCB) / Pyrolysis / Rubber filler / Compounding / Sustainability / Circular economy

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere thanks to the team at the Materials Laboratory of TH Köln, whose contribution was crucial throughout the research process. We would also like to acknowledge the team at the Metabolon Institute, especially for operating the experimental facilities that were essential for this study.

Author Contributions

S.B. led the conceptualization, original draft preparation, and review & editing, with contributions from D.K.-K. and C.M. in conceptualization and supervision. Methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, and visualization were conducted by S.B. and E.K. Project administration and supervision were led by D.K.-K. and C.M.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Funding

This research was conducted in collaboration with the Teaching and Research Centre metabolon, a joint initiative of TH Köln (University of Applied Sciences) and the Bergischer Abfallwirtschaftsverband (BAV). The research project “Pilot Bergische Rohstoffschmiede” was funded by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the EFRE.NRW 2021–2027 program.

Declaration of Competing Interest

Sebastian Bogdahn reports a relationship with Schwalbe—Ralf Bohle GmbH that includes: employment. The other authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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