Carbon black

Carbon black is nearly pure carbon made by burning heavy oil in a starved flame; it reinforces tyres and colours plastics and inks.

Commodity chemicals · Other inorganics · No. 10

• Single chemical
• Feedstock: Oil, gas or coal
• about 13-14 Mt a year (2024, indicative: 17.5 Mt capacity at about 75-80% utilisation)
• 2.4 t CO₂e per t
• HS 280300

Your tyres are black because they are packed with soot made by half-burning heavy oil, and it makes them last far longer.

Chart: Illustration: Carbon black

Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Heavy aromatic oil from refineries or coke ovens is sprayed into a gas flame with too little air, cracking into carbon particles of 10-100 nanometres.

Three things to know

1. Cabot, Birla Carbon and Orion together held about 32% of the world's 17.5 Mt capacity in 2021.
2. India exported $475 million of carbon black in 2024, second only to China, and PCBL aims for 1 Mt capacity by FY2027-28.
3. Swapping virgin black for black recovered from old tyres saves about 1.4-2.0 kg CO₂ per kilogram.

The journey

1. 1 Heavy oilRefinery decant oil or coal tar
2. 2 Furnace reactorSprayed into a starved flame, 1,400-1,800 C
3. 3 Quench and filterWater stops reaction; bag filters collect
4. 4 PelletisingFluffy black turned into handy beads
5. 5 CompoundingMixed into tyre and rubber compounds

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