Cabot, Tokai progress on carbon black emission cutbacks

BORGER, Texas—Tokai Carbon CB Ltd. and Cabot Corp. continue to spend millions of dollars to help eliminate emissions from their plants, expenses that are part of consent decrees previously agreed to with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Tokai Carbon has completed a portion of the emissions reduction work at its carbon black plants as required under those decrees. The work includes nitrogen oxide reduction equipment at the company's Big Spring, Texas, location.

At the company's site in Borger, NOX and sulfur dioxide reduction equipment is now in place. Work is expected to be completed by April on the project that will "dramatically" reduce those emissions from the facility, the company said.

In Addis, La., power generating equipment has been ordered, and NOX and sulfur dioxide reduction equipment will be ordered by the end of this year. This project will be completed by the end of 2022, according to current plans.

Tokai Carbon also has installed detection equipment and created operating procedures aimed at reducing particulate emissions at all three locations.

The company expects to spend a total of $148 million by the end of 2022 for improvements at the plants, including $50 million that already has been committed and another $73 million expected to be spent under the consent decree.

The remaining money involves power generating equipment that Tokai is installing outside of the agreement. This $25 million project at the Addis plant will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "After completion of the Addis project, TCCB will have process gas generated electricity at all three plants, exporting electricity at two facilities," the company said in a statement.

Cabot, meanwhile, expects to start using new pollution control equipment at its Franklin, La., carbon black plant early next year.

"The project has completed 90 percent of the estimated person-hours required and remains on track to finish ahead of the industry's April 2021 EPA deadline," Boston-based Cabot said.

This is despite delays caused by flooding from Hurricane Barry in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic this year, the company said.

"Our deep experience deploying best-in-class pollution control technologies at sites all across our global network gives us a clear understanding of the technical, operational and patent landscape. We are leveraging this experience to assure successful implementation of proven technologies in Louisiana, unhindered by operational or intellectual property concerns," Bart Kalkstein, president of both the company's Reinforcement Materials Segment and Americas Region, said in a statement.

Work in Franklin follows emissions control efforts that were completed in 2017 at Cabot's Pampa, Texas, facility. That project reduced NOX emissions by 67 percent, or nearly 1,500 metric tons during the past three years, the company said.

Cabot also is spending $90 million to make energy improvements at another carbon black plant in Louisiana.

The project at the company's Ville Platte facility—expected to begin in the second quarter of 2021 and finish in 2022—will create 15 jobs to go along with the existing 90 workers.

Cabot makes carbon black in Ville Platte by converting byproduct steam from oil refineries into the granular form of carbon.

The new project will capture waste heat from an incineration process at the plant, while also removing impurities to generate electricity to power operations.

Kalkstein said the project will allow his company to make "clean power without generating any additional emissions."

"In addition to the jobs this new energy center project will create, we're also looking forward to the tremendous sustainability benefits this project will enable, including reductions in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and indirect greenhouse gas emissions," he said in a statement.

Production at Ville Platte, which means flat city in French, began 77 years ago to help support the country's World War II efforts. The location in central Louisiana originally was selected because of its proximity to natural gas reservoirs.

The Louisiana Economic Department, a state agency, and Cabot started discussing the energy project about two years ago. Louisiana is giving the company an incentive package that includes a $1 million grant to help with infrastructure costs. Cabot also will receive a $500,000 modernization tax credit.

Cabot is expected to use a state jobs program and an industrial tax exemption program, according to the state.

Along with the 15 permanent jobs that will have an average salary of more than $73,000, the state said the project will create 380 jobs during the project's construction phases.