Gaishi Auto News On June 19, LD Carbon, a carbon black recycling producer, completed a round C financing of $28 million, led by the Toyota Growth Fund Woven Capital, Meritz Securities、Investwith、 Industrial Bank of Korea, Hyundai Motor Group ZER01NE innovation platform, Elohim Partners and New Main Capital participated in the investment.
Image source: LD Carbon
LD Carbon will use this investment to expand its business scale. Through pyrolysis and material recovery technology, it will recover the materials in scrap tires and scrap vehicles into recycled carbon black (rCB) and pyrolysis oil, which will be used to manufacture new auto parts and tires. This investment will promote the mission of LD Carbon to accelerate the development of circular economy, while saving material costs and carbon emissions for global customers.
Manufacturing carbon black is a highly polluting process, which produces 25 million tons of carbon dioxide every year. The other 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide come from 28% of the waste tires burned, which is equivalent to the total carbon dioxide of more than 9 million passenger cars.
The pyrolysis and material recovery process of LD Carbon adopts patented carbon black recovery manufacturing technology, and the recovery rate of waste tires is close to 100%, providing an environmentally friendly choice for carbon black recovery and pyrolysis oil development.
Auto manufacturers are gradually adopting more recyclable materials to build cars. This demand is driven by the new enterprise net zero emission target, emission requirements and proposals of the European Commission, which call on automobile manufacturers to use 25% recycled plastics, of which at least 5% must come from end-of-life vehicles.
LD Carbon's existing factory in Gimcheon, South Korea capacity More than 7000 tons of rCB, supplied to major tire and rubber product manufacturers. In addition, LD Carbon also signed a 10-year tire pyrolysis oil supply agreement with SK Incheon Petrochemicals.
The company is investing in the construction of the largest tire pyrolysis plant in Asia in Dangjin City, Chungcheongnam do, which is planned to be completed in 2024. Its annual production capacity will reach 50000 tons of scrap tires, which can be converted into 23000 tons of TPO, 20000 tons of rCB and 7000 tons of other valuable gases and materials. In addition, LD Carbon has also developed key product specifications with industry enterprises including several major tire manufacturers in the world.
