USA’s green hydrogen and carbon black producer, Monolith Materials, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the South Korean conglomerate company, SK Inc., on a joint venture to produce green hydrogen and carbon black in South Korea. Monolith Materials will provide its technological expertise in building the project and SK Inc. will look after the production, distribution, and sales.
Carbon black is produced as a side product from the turquoise hydrogen production technique which is a green production process involving pyrolysis of natural gas to produce hydrogen and solid-state carbon without releasing out gaseous greenhouse gases. The obtained solid carbon is processed into carbon-black that is widely used in the manufacturing of tyres ad mechanical rubber-based goods.
SK Inc. is planning to establish a carbon-neutral economy at its production base under which it has further planned for utilizing carbon black in electric vehicles by first establishing the compatibility and feasibility of carbon black over graphite through rigorous research and scientific investigations for building anode materials in these vehicles.
As per ChemAnalyst, many companies are striving to attain carbon neutrality by adopting green production practices owing to the mounting pressure from the continued cropping up of pro-climate norms and the growing market for sustainable products. The joint venture will allow the USA’s Monolith Materials to expand its business in South Korea and help South Korea’s SK Inc. to leap at its target for a carbon-neutral economy. The demand for carbon black in Asia has been on its high ever since the revival of the automobile sector after the pandemic period. The green production technique is expected to add volumes to the supply of carbon black which will be able to fulfil its high demand at the end-user industries. This is further expected to normalize the prices of carbon black in the Asia Pacific region.
