ASTM proposes standard for recycled-content carbon black

A proposed recovered carbon black (rCB) standard developed by a committee of West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based ASTM International could provide a boost to the production of rCB in the United States and beyond.

The proposed WK91069 standard from the organization's rCB committee has been designed to help enable a manufacturer to significantly improve their production process monitoring abilities and improve productivity, according to ASTM.

ASTM member Pieter Ter Haar says the proposed WK91069 standard, still under development, is specifically for rCB as opposed to virgin carbon black.

“The method currently used, which has been adopted from ASTM’s carbon black committee, results in a testing time that can take up to 18 hours,” says Ter Haar, who is director of rCB at United Kingdom-based Circtec. “This is very inconvenient for producers for whom this is an important quality parameter.”

Ter Haar says that the proposed standard can reduce the testing period to only a few hours, improving a company’s ability to make process adjustments and reducing the creation of potentially off-spec material.

“For end users it will become much easier and faster to obtain results,” ASTM says.

ASTM says its rCB standard effort directly relates to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 12 on responsible consumption and production.