Innovation
Fostering a Culture of Innovation
At the heart of our business lies the ambition to improve and innovate— for our customers, our teams, and the future of our planet. We create an environment where ideas spark at every level, strengthening people, processes, products, and the way we engage with the society. This drive pushes us to develop state-of-the-art solutions while deepening our understanding of our products and their applications, ensuring that innovation directly supports our sustainability goals and long-term impacts.
By harnessing the best technologies, we are improving our products, uncovering new opportunities for carbon black applications, and closely assessing our sustainability efforts. We continuously invest in, and upgrade, the technologies of our existing plants, while also developing new facilities to support future sustainable business growth, to ensure our operations are as efficient as possible, and to preserve and maintain our competitive advantage. These investments in technology will allow us to maximize the efficiency of our manufacturing processes and enhance our environmental performance. Our investments also focus on enhancing site safety and worker protection, reducing our environmental impact through advanced air emissions controls and more efficient water management, optimizing our carbon and energy cycles, and upgrading plant facilities to foster health and well-being, including through initiatives like our Employee Resource Group (ERG) programming.
Digital Incident Reporting
At our Trecate plant in Italy, the Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) team identified an opportunity to improve how workplace incidents were recorded and addressed. Previously, the process relied heavily on manual spreadsheets and documentation — a method that was not only time-consuming but also prone to inconsistencies in reporting and data management. This, in turn, created challenges for both timely responses and accurate analysis.
Recognizing the need for a more efficient approach, the team set out to create a digital solution that would simplify reporting, ensure reliable data, and empower employees to act more quickly when risks were identified. Working in close collaboration with our Digital & IT team, they successfully designed and implemented a web-based application tailored to the plant’s needs. Developed in-house, the new system was cost-effective while providing a host of benefits, including streamlined workflows, more consistent reporting, reduced administrative effort, and enhanced data analysis capabilities. The application also includes a mobile interface in Italian, offering employees a convenient way to report incidents directly from the field and managers the ability to monitor performance indicators in real time.
Optimizing Freight Efficiency and Reducing Emissions
Freight has a substantial impact on our environmental performance as well as our cost structure. At Birla Carbon Korea, teams came together in 2025 to rethink how we use shipping containers, with the goal of transporting more product per container. Their innovative approach increased load capacity by 9%, equivalent to an additional 1.6 metric tons per each 40-foot container.
This change not only delivered cost savings through more efficient use of shipping resources but also reduced emissions associated with transportation — a clear example of how operational improvements can simultaneously strengthen business competitiveness and support sustainability.
By looking at long-standing processes through a new lens, our teams continue to find creative ways to minimize our footprint, optimize resources, and create lasting value for our customers and the planet.
Building a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Organization
At Birla carbon, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment for all employees. In line with this vision, women-led ERGs have been established across our regions to create support networks and provide opportunities for professional growth.
Our two global women-focused ERGS, Women in Safety & Environment (WISE) and Leading and Inspiring Female Talent (LIFT), are focused on empowering women through shared learning, professional development, and contributions to business success. This year, WISE hosted two events. The first event was a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging workshop, addressing gender stereotypes, biases, and strategies for overcoming discrimination in the workplace. The second featured the Vice President of Business Development at Telexos, who shared her career journey and insights on innovation, sustainability, and entrepreneurship through an interactive session. Both events reflected WISE’s commitment to fostering inclusion and professional growth within the organization. These initiatives align with Birla Carbon’s broader focus on sustainability and responsible business practices, as highlighted in Birla Carbon’s Sustainability initiatives.
Research and Development
To better serve our customers, we are expanding research and development (R&D) in novel product and process areas. Areas adjacent to where we currently work, such as conductive, renewable, recycled solutions and other low GHG emission carbon products, all hold potential for increasing value.
We are investing more in these research channels to proactively address challenges our customers may face in the future, and to drive our sustainability and growth ambitions. Our three principal R&D Centers are in Belgium (Sambreville), India (Taloja), and the USA (Marietta, Georgia).
Net Zero Solutions
Chemical products are ubiquitous in modern society. The chemical sector is a large industrial emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and,
as such, producers face significant challenges and costs on the path to decarbonization.
Sustainable solutions for producing carbon black will need to address the dual objectives of lowering GHG emissions while enhancing the performance of carbon black products. Birla Carbon’s R&D team is focused on developing solutions to produce low-GHG emission products and integrating these pathways into manufacturing processes.
One example pathway, recovered carbon black, is poised to become a lever for decarbonization of the tire industry — a significant component of the automotive industry’s climate impact. Recovered carbon black is a sustainable material produced through the thermal pyrolysis of used tires. This technique involves heating tires at high temperatures in the absence of oxygen, decomposing the rubber into recovered carbon black, as well as oils and gases that can be reused or converted into energy. Not only does this process generate a sustainable way to recycle used tires on a large scale, but it also has the potential to be less carbon intensive than conventional or virgin production processes.
Continua™ SCM is Birla Carbon’s unique sustainable carbonaceous materials product derived from the pyrolysis of end-of-life tires (ELTs). Our R&D teams continue to work with our customers to increase the adoption of Continua™ SCM in their own products and leverage the sustainable benefits it provides as a recycled and circular material.
Continua™ and the Challenge of Advancing Circularity
As a responsible industry leader, Birla Carbon has witnessed the evolution of tire recycling and its growing importance for global sustainability. In recent years, SCM derived from the pyrolysis of ELTs has been recognized as a new category of materials, distinct from carbon black, with unique compositional character and regulatory identification codes. This important distinction highlights the fundamental differences between SCM and conventional carbon black — both in composition and legal status. The European Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation now requires a separate registration dossier for SCM, distinct from that of carbon black. Despite these developments, confusion remains in the market due to the continued use of the term “recovered carbon black” (rCB) to describe SCM. This has led to some unfair business practices and regulatory noncompliance, as many stakeholders continue to handle, trade, and transport SCM as though it were carbon black. These practices, even if often unintentional, can undermine market transparency and increase legal risks for companies across the value chain.
We believe it is in the collective interest of the industry to support accurate classification and promote fair business practices. As we move forward, we invite all stakeholders and participants throughout the value chain to bolster efforts toward clarity and consistency in SCM identification and management, as we continue supporting the journey to true circularity.
In 2023, Birla Carbon completed the acquisition of Belgium-based Nanocyl SA, a worldwide leader in multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Nanocyl is a pioneer in the manufacturing of industrial thin MWCNTs and is a worldwide industry leader in the field of MWCNTs and MWCNT-based formulated products. Nanocyl’s industrial strategy focuses on the current challenges of the transport and electronics markets, while developing novel sustainable solutions for the energy systems and rubber markets.
The acquisition expands Birla Carbon’s presence in the Energy Systems market, creating a leadership position in material critical to Li-ion battery performance along with other conductive applications and nextgen batteries. Birla Carbon’s R&D expertise, portfolio of products, and market experience will enable Nanocyl and our products to reach their full growth potential. Birla Carbon has been nurturing a number of innovation opportunities in our effort to realize our multiprong sustainability agenda. The acquisition of Nanocyl has been a clear step towards executing our strategy in that direction. In synergy with novel carbon products, we anticipate that this partnership will enable Birla Carbon to be a significant player in the emerging energy systems space.
