Monolith signs letter of intent and collaboration agreement with Goodyear on carbon black for its tire production
Monolith, a leader in clean carbon black production, announced it has signed a collaboration agreement and letter of intent (LOI) with The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, one of the world’s largest tire companies. As part of the agreements, Monolith expects to collaborate with Goodyear on the development and potential use of clean carbon black produced at its expanding Olive Creek facility in Hallam, Nebraska.
“We’re thrilled to enter into a productive collaboration with a highly-respected company like Goodyear that shares our commitment to sustainability,” said Rob Hanson, co-founder and chief executive officer, Monolith. “Monolith’s carbon black enables manufacturers like Goodyear to meet their sustainability goals and address customer demands for environmentally-responsible products.”
Monolith expects to begin construction on its expanded Olive Creek facility in 2022, with completion scheduled for 2025. Once complete, Monolith’s Olive Creek facility will produce 194,000 tonnes of cleanly made carbon black annually, along with 275,000 tonnes of clean ammonia. When fully commissioned, the facility will be the largest manufacturer of carbon black in the U.S. and the first built in the country in over 50 years.
“At Goodyear, we’re committed to sustainability and making a positive impact by our choice of the materials we use,” said Chris Helsel, senior vice president, global operations and chief technology officer. “Our collaboration with Monolith is one example of how we are using sustainable materials in quality products that deliver a better future.”
Carbon black is an essential material found in countless everyday products, but perhaps most notably in tires. Conventional carbon black is produced by burning decant oil or coal tar, releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Monolith, through its proprietary pyrolysis process, has developed and perfected a new technology that uses renewable electricity to convert natural gas into high-purity carbon black and hydrogen. This clean, environmentally responsible process creates nearly zero local emissions and significantly reduced life-cycle emissions overall. Through Monolith’s methane pyrolysis technology, the company is able to prevent an estimated 2.3 tons of CO2 from being released for every ton of carbon black produced compared to traditional manufacturing processes. Monolith’s expanded facility is projected to save nearly 1 million tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere compared to traditional carbon black, hydrogen and ammonia manufacturing.
Monolith’s Olive Creek 1 commercial-scale facility is the first of its kind in the world and the first carbon black production facility to be constructed in the United States since the 1970s. Monolith was founded in 2012 and first began producing carbon black on a commercial scale in 2021. Along with carbon black and clean hydrogen, the company announced in late 2020 its plans to produce clean ammonia at a second phase production facility in Nebraska.
