A newly approved standard from ASTM International’s recovered carbon black (rCB) committee provides a test that will help to differentiate products and provide a quality control tool for producers and users. The material is a recycled product made from end-of-life tires.

The new standard describes a thermogravimetric TGA technique to determine the amounts of organicSource: Getty Images residue, overall fixed carbon content, and ash content in rCB.

“The new standard will be a useful tool specifically for quality control and can be used for off-take agreements, technical data sheets, and certificates of analysis,” said ASTM member Pieter ter Haar, from Circtec. “This will be most useful for manufacturers, as well as users and consumers.”

“This standard will improve the adoption of rCB,” said ter Haar. “Recovered carbon black can complement or substitute conventional carbon black in many applications, including the production of new, more sustainable tires.”

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The ASTM Committee D36 on rCB was launched in 2017 to support the emerging rCB industry regarding the quality and safety of its products. Several sub-committees are responsible for developing standards for terminology, guidance, practices, and testing methods.