Birla Carbon Spain supplies carbon black by-products for full-scale asphalt paving

Birla Carbon Spain supplied carbon black by-products for a sustainable asphalt mixture used to pave a road from Monegro to the Virgen de las Nieves hermitage, plus a parking area, in Campoo de Yuso, Cantabria. The paving was completed in March 2026 at full scale. The by-product directly replaces conventional asphalt volume, with 550 kg applied over a 520 square meter parking area, diverting material from landfill.

Key facts

Market context

Carbon black is a fine, paracrystalline form of carbon produced mainly by partial combustion or thermal decomposition of heavy oil residues. Its largest use is as a reinforcing filler and pigment in tires and rubber goods, so demand tracks automotive production, replacement tire sales and industrial rubber consumption. Carbon black plants generate by-product streams and off-spec material that producers must manage through sale, reuse or disposal. Routing such material into asphalt, where it can partly substitute conventional binder or aggregate volume, offers an alternative to landfill and can support circular feedstock use. For buyers and investors, the significance lies in whether such outlets are validated at scale, since municipal road budgets, asphalt specifications and regulatory acceptance determine how much material can be absorbed. Single demonstrations do not yet set prices, but they indicate where new recovery channels may develop alongside the core rubber and pigment markets.

Source: official release on birlacarbon.com. Summary and context written by Market Krystal.