E4S Awards - Monolith Materials Inc. (with Goodyear)

The main goal of the development project was to develop a carbon black produced from methane or other hydrocarbon plasma pyrolysis that would have equivalent performance to furnace carbon black across multiple applications within the tire, including a variety of rubber systems.

Technical challenges

Fine tuning of the carbon black colloidal properties and designing features in such a way to allow for comparable performance across different rubber systems and filler loadings was a technical challenge addressed by the project team. Each rubber system or compound application can result in a different expected response from the carbon black.

Key breakthrough

Furnace carbon black, in this case, N660, behaves in a known way in each of the common systems where this grade of carbon black is used, butyl rubber or in a diene like natural rubber or SBR. Making a carbon black produced from a plasma pyrolysis process behave the same way in both rubber matrices was a significant accomplishment, enabled by intentional design of colloidal properties and appropriate formulation adjustments to achieve drop-in performance.

To our knowledge, this is the first ever plasma pyrolysis carbon black development to allow for drop-in performance compared to a furnace black in a diene.

Contribution of the technology or product to sustainability

The carbon black produced from plasma pyrolysis has a significantly lower carbon footprint than furnace carbon black, thereby allowing for a reduction in the carbon footprint for the end-use applications, such as tires. This lower carbon footprint comes from the use of low emission electricity and the fact that there is no combustion taking place during the production of the carbon black, unlike in the furnace black process.

Scope for further enhancements to the technology or product

Development of additional carbon black grades and further technology expansion to provide larger volumes and displace more emissions of CO2. Monolith has the ability to also utilize renewable, recycled or bio-based hydrocarbon feedstocks to further the already impressive environmental benefit that is afforded by Monolith's technology platform.

Further comments on contribution of this development project to environmental sustainabilty

The carbon black produced for use in tires and other rubber goods represents a large opportunity for the industry to decarbonize due to the significant carbon footprint of the incumbent furnace black production process. Monolith’s plasma technology offers a way to achieve the same performance as the furnace process while reducing the carbon footprint significantly. The combination of those two features is the real accomplishment in this development because often, today, the materials which allow for a lower carbon footprint cannot be scaled or do not offer equivalent performance to those that are in use today.

Additionally, Monolith’s proprietary process delivers a yield of 95% - utilizing almost 100% of the hydrocarbon molecule - a significant leap over conventional furnace black processes, which typically achieve 55–65% yield. This is an effective and efficient use of feedstocks to produce critical raw materials for the automotive industry.

Finally, Monolith’s pyrolysis technology uses significantly less water than traditional furnace carbon black production methods; it does not use water as a quench in the production process, relying primarily on water only for cooling purposes and pelletization. Internal estimates suggest up to 40% less water usage compared to conventional carbon black production.