A new manufacturing company is a month away from opening its pilot plant for a new carbon black alternative process in Maryville.
Ken Townsend, the plant manager for the new Carbolytic Materials Company (CMC) currently being built in Maryville attended the Men's Forum meeting Tuesday and explained what the new company would be doing.
CEO Ray Riek started the company with the idea of developing a clean process by taking a product and using every part of it to recycle it into other uses. The plant will begin by taking passenger tires and breaking them down into a carbon black alternative.
There are 300 million scrap tires generated annually in the United States, representing more than six billion pounds of underutilized hydrocarbon-based materials.
CMC estimates the potential use of recycled reinforcing materials to exceed 600 million pounds in the U.S. With that assumption, CMC stated that approximately 40 percent of annual scrap tire generation would be consumed, upgrading the current utilization of scrap tires to higher economic value and virtually eliminating the need for landfill.
The manufacturing facility will allow CMC to process significant volumes of tire shred yearly to produce ApexCM carbon black replacement material. This recovered carbon black can be used in automotive, agricultural, construction and industrial rubber applications. It is a lower cost and environmentally responsible alternative to traditional carbon black.
CMC will be taking rubber chips — which will primarily be tires in the beginning — and running them through a cooker. This cooker, which was so large the building had to be constructed around it, will turn the rubber tire product into raw carbon black. That product will then be ground into a fine dust powder. Adding a binder to that product will create tiny pellets.
Fumes will be sucked into a vacuum where they can be turned into diesel fuel and a light oil type product. With the steel leftover from inside the tires, CMC will send the steel product to a recycling center in St. Joseph.
Everything from the water to the gas emitted from the process is used. Both of those products are used to regenerate electricity for use in the original process.
"It's an extremely clean process," Townsend said. "Everything is put into it with plans to recycle."
The new plant, which has 12 employees right now, has the potential to employ a total of 35 employees, Townsend said.
As the first plant of its type, he said because those products will be out there for the first time, the company should be able to expand rapidly.
"I think we've got the best equipment for this process," Townsend send. "And I know we've got the best community."
The 49-foot tall, 25,000 square-foot building has the potential to someday expand, and will covert 60 tons of rubber a day. Townsend said that equates to three large semi-trucks full every day.
If anyone is interested in a technician position at the CMC plant, apply at the Missouri Career Center at 1212 S. Main St. in Maryville.
Addressing audience questions of why CMC chose Maryville for its location instead of other areas, Townsend said he thought the extra effort put forth by the Nodaway County Economic Development office, Northwest Missouri State University and the Maryville Industrial Development Corporation had a lot to do with it.
Carbolytic Materials Company will be leasing a space for research and development in Northwest's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Maryville, Mo. —
