The company's newly launched Ecorax Nature 200—which is made in Jaslo, Poland, and based on bio-circular feedstocks—also received certification.
Earning the certification involves rigorous audits of processes and plants producing specified grades of carbon black to ensure compliance with high sustainability standards.
The certification process also includes verification of the transparency and traceability of the raw materials throughout the company's supply chain.
In the same vein, Orion is investing $13.7 million in more efficient tire pyrolysis reactors on the front end to "accelerate the shift to a circular economy."
With support from the German government and European Union, Orion's "Clean Carbon Black Research and Development Project"—announced last year—is designed to improve the company's yield and throughput of carbon black through a "climate-neutral process," using alternative carbon sources.
The project potentially could reduce the carbon footprint of carbon black development by a "significant amount."
The investment—which includes about $6.9 million in funding from the decarbonization program of Germany's Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, supported by the EU's NextGenerationEU fund—will involve the construction of a research facility at Orion's main innovation center in Cologne, Germany, to support the project.
Orion has four innovation centers and produces carbon black at 15 plants worldwide.