The Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Justice have ruled that no extension or grace period will be granted to Continental Carbon Co. regarding the installation of environmental remediation equipment at its Phenix City, Alabama carbon black plant, Notch has learned from industry sources. This means that, barring some further development, the factory will cease operations by January 1, 2023. Continental Carbon had requested a two- to three-year extension on the completion schedule stipulated in its consent decree with the US EPA/DOJ, which requires a DGS (dry gas scrubbing) or WGS (wet gas scrubbing) system for sulfur dioxide and particulate matter to be installed at the plant by December 31, 2022 and in continuous operation by 180 days thereafter.
Continental Carbon has already completed the required remediation projects for its other two carbon black plants in the United States. The schedule for these projects was September 1, 2020 for Sunray, Texas and April 1, 2021 for Ponca City, Oklahoma. The consent decree was signed in 2015 and modified in 2017. The effort to keep the factory open received significant local and regional support.
The factory has 90,000 tons/year of capacity for tread grades, though in recent years it has been operating at partial capacity. Notch estimates that the closure will remove about 40-50 KT of supply from the US carbon black market.
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