Black Bear is a highly innovative, green, sustainable carbon black manufacturer. Black Bear chooses to change the industry with breakthrough technology and with passionate people; because they truly believe that if we don’t act now we will be left with an even bigger global environmental problem.

Carbon black is a crucial component in tires, other rubbers, plastics, inks and paints and is used to modify their properties into usable products. Almost everything that you see around you that is black in color has carbon black in it.  Black Bear creates a new game by making a better and sustainable product - a circular product for a better world. Why is that so?

Carbon black is a form of elemental carbon that is manufactured by the controlled vapour-phase pyrolysis and partial combustion of hydrocarbons. Several processes have been used to produce carbon black, including the oil-furnace, impingement (channel), lampblack, thermal (decomposition of natural gas) and acetylene (decomposition) processes. 
Carbon blacks are commonly referred to by the process or the source material from which they are made, e.g. furnace black, lamp black, thermal black, acetylene black and channel black. The different grades from the various processes have certain unique characteristics, but it is now possible to produce reasonable approximations of most of these grades using the oil-furnace process, by which more than 95% of the total output of carbon black is produced. Unfortunately this method requires about 2.5 liters of oil to produce 1 kg of carbon black.

Black Bear has developed technology to upcycle waste tires into high quality carbon black, gas and oil. This brings tremendous benefits to the environment by reducing CO₂ emissions and generating green energy. As a result of several technical and patented innovations Black Bear produces high quality recovered carbon black, making the process commercially viable. In the process of making carbon black they produce more energy than they consume, meaning we have a negative environmental footprint. 

Black Bear has developed the ‘green & clean’ carbon black together with potential customers. Already more than 100 potential buyers from different market segments have tested the product and repeat orders have taken place. Given the characteristics of our carbon black, clients see ample technological and environmental opportunities to improve their end products using Black Bear grades of carbon black. 

Black Bear has built its first research & production line in the Netherlands together with a leading tire collector. The line is operational and has produced its first commercial volumes of high quality carbon black. The next step for Black Bear is to use the learning efforts from this plant in order to build industrial-sized plants which thrive in efficiency. In order to process all tires that reach the end of their life, Black Bear needs to build over a 1000 plants. They won’t sit still until they have.