Growth at Monolith spurs hire of Russell Webb as chief operating officer

LINCOLN, Neb.—As Monolith Corp. prepares to open its Phase II production of plasma-produced carbon black at its Olive Creek campus, it will look to Russell Webb to lead operations.

Webb's hire as chief operating officer became official Nov. 7, according to a news release from Monolith.

"Russell is an experienced industry executive with proven success in leading carbon black and product adjacent operations," said Rob Hanson, co-founder and CEO of Monolith. "We're focused on adding talent to lead the innovation required to scale our technology and deliver cleaner products to market, and I look forward to working closely with Russell as we continue to build a low-emissions, high-energy future."

Webb has more than 35 years of experience in leading large-scale operations, having previously worked for Texaco, Huntsman, Columbian Chemicals, Orion S.A. and Ineos Styrolution.

As vice president of operations at Ineos, Webb led manufacturing, engineering and capital projects for four polymer plants, and oversaw the engineering, procurement and construction of a new $550 million greenfield ASA polymer plant that is expected to begin commercial operation in late 2023.

He has led manufacturing, engineering and capital projects for five Orion carbon black plants in North and South America, helping to improve reliability, yield cost reductions, develop strategic technology improvements and lead health, safety and regulatory compliance.

"It is an exciting time for Monolith," Webb said. "I look forward to working alongside the team to bring our technology to commercial scale, and to help our global customers realize a path to making their products more sustainable."

In his new role at Monolith, Webb will "manage manufacturing, environmental health and safety, capital projects and supply chain while partnering with Monolith's commercial, development and technology teams to continue the company's growth journey."

In October, Monolith added one new face and promoted two others, a further reflection of the company's growth.

Looking internally, Monolith promoted Amy Ostermeyer to chief development officer and Phil Joyner to senior vice president of manufacturing.

Those appointments took place Oct. 5 and Sept. 6, respectively.

In addition, Monolith named Gintas Vildzius as chief technology officer, a hire that became effective Oct. 5.

Vildzius came to Monolith after more than two decades at General Electric and other companies in technical and research and development roles.

Prior to that, Monolith named Suzanne Grafton as its next chief accounting officer, a hire that was made Aug. 18.

Monolith is looking to stay ahead of the sustainability curve in the carbon black industry with its proprietary plasma/methane pyrolysis method, which creates carbon black and turquoise hydrogen out of natural gas.

The "next‐generation hydrogen and materials company," as it bills itself, converts conventional, renewable or responsibly sourced natural gas into these materials.

According to testing, engineering and consulting firm Smithers, based in Akron, methane pyrolysis has produced CBs that can replace semi-reinforcing carbon blacks (N500, N600 and N700).

Highly reinforced CBs—like N100, N200 and N300—might be feasible in the next five to 10 years from methane pyrolysis.

The method has "substantial potential" using biomethane feedstock combined with green power.

However, Smithers in February of this year put the technology readiness level at a 7, meaning it is in the "demonstration and full-scale engineering" stages and not yet industrialized, which is expected in 2025-26.

With Monolith as the only production plant, single-sourcing is a risk for customers.

Monolith has received conditional support for a $1 billion federal loan at its Nebraska plant, for which Monolith has lofty goals of becoming the largest carbon black producer in the U.S. at about 194,000 metric tons per year.

Monolith is backed by investors including Azimuth Capital Management, Cornell Capital, Decarbonization Partners, Imperative Science Ventures, Magnetar Capital, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, NextEra Energy Resources Inc., SK Inc., TPG Rise Climate and Warburg Pincus.