• Recovered carbon black (rCB) can potentially replace upto 100% of commercial carbon black in tyre manufacturers. • Recovered carbon black can be an important driver of circular economy in tyre manufacturing. • Modified rCB improves the mechanical and rheological properties of rubber compound. • Substituting virgin carbon black with rCB reduces environmental impact of tyre manufacturing. • The economic feasibility of rCB depends on its technical performance and acceptance by tyres manufacturers • Future research should be focused on improving the quality of rCB for sustainable tyre making. End-of-life tyres pose significant environmental and resource challenges. Mitigation strategies could be an exemplar of potential for circular economy through the recovery of materials that can be circulated back to tyre manufacturing. Recovered carbon black produced via pyrolysis of these end-of-life tyres, is an essential secondary raw material with the potential to partially substitute commercial carbon black in rubber formulation and enhancing material circularity in the tyre value chain. To date the literature has predominantly focused on specific aspects of recovered carbon black, such as modification, its performance in rubber compounds, and environmental and economic assessments of production. However, a holistic perspective that combines these technical, environmental and economic aspects and evaluates the circularity potential of recovered carbon black remains unavailable in current literature. Learnings from existing studies are fragmented, as they do not offer a comprehensive assessment on how recovered carbon black from end-of-life tyres can be effectively reintegrated into the tyre manufacturing value chain. This article addresses that gap by reviewing the state-of-the-art on recovered carbon black production and application together with sustainability assessment. This work develops an integrated perspective on the role of recovered carbon black in tyre manufacturing and outlines key pathways and challenges for scaling up its use to improve circularity in the tyre industry. It also proposes a functional unit definition according to the European Commission’s product environmental footprint guide as "1 kg recovered carbon black in tyre manufacturing providing equivalent reinforcing performance of commercial carbon black over the average tyre lifetime”.
Pati et al. (Wed,) studied this question.