Epsilon Carbon to invest ₹900 crore in new carbon black plant in Karnataka

Epsilon Carbon, a leading coal tar derivatives company, plans to invest ₹900 crore in setting up a carbon black facility at Bellary in Karnataka.

The first phase of the new facility is expected to be commissioned by the third quarter of FY21 with an initial capacity of 1.15 lakh tonnes per annum (tpa). It will be further expanded to over three lakh tpa by FY24.

Currently, Epsilon Carbon operates a 2.2-lakh tpa coal tar distillation facility that caters to 40 per cent of the demand for pitch in the aluminum industry.

The integrated carbon black complex will be the first of its kind manufacturing facility in India to use waste coke oven gas from steel plants as a fuel, making this an environment-friendly set-up with lower CO2 footprint, said the company.

In addition, the plant with its captive low-sulphur feedstock, will have the lowest SOx/NOx (sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides) pollutant levels which are much below those of the current carbon black manufacturing facilities in India.

Vikram Handa, Managing Director, Epsilon Carbon, said the core advantage of the Indian carbon black sector is the security of raw materials provided to customers.

The integrated facility will produce both hard and soft grades of carbon black. The carbon black oil /anthracene oil generated in the coal tar distillation process will be used as feed to the carbon black unit, providing a complete backward integration support, he said.

Globally, the tyre industry is a leading consumer of carbon black products. It is used as a reinforcing filler to improve the longevity of tyres. Hence, carbon black gets about 93 per cent of its total volume demand from rubber-related industries.

Moreover, it is also used as a black pigment in printing inks, paints and varnishes for dyeing and for ultra violet (UV) protection of plastics and in specialty products such as decor paper and fibers.

As conductive carbon black, it is used in the electrical industry to manufacture electrodes and carbon brushes.

Established in 2010, Epsilon Carbon has manufacturing facilities across Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Orissa to be strategically located near raw material sources and customers.