Monolith details expansion plans for Nebraska methane pyrolysis plant

Monolith Corporation (Lincoln, NE) has provided details on its future plans regarding its Olive Creek facility in Hallam, Nebraska. In a LinkedIn posting, Monolith's co-founder and CEO Rob Hanson said, "Following a technological breakthrough in 2025, we optimized our expansion plans for our Nebraska facility. This expansion is grounded in our belief in this technology, in our customers, our Nebraska community, and a relentless focus on manufacturing the critical materials we count on in our daily lives."

An article in the Lincoln Journal Star provided details on the expansion plans. Monolith is shifting its process from natural gas to a liquid feedstock (heavy residual fuel oil), which will allow it to produce more carbon black per production unit. The company plans to begin construction on the expansion later this year on a facility that will have four production units with a combined capacity of 220,000 tons/year of carbon black, or 55,000 tons/unit. This would make the facility the largest carbon black plant in the United States, and among the largest in the world. The hydrogen produced as a byproduct will go back into energy generation for a new data center to be located at the site (details TBA). Monolith's carbon black has been successfully used in Goodyear tires since 2023.

Current capacity at the site is one unit with 14,000 tons of carbon black capacity (based on natural gas feedstock). The plant uses a novel plasma pyrolysis process to break the natural gas molecule into highly pure carbon and hydrogen. Because no oxygen is used in the reaction, the Monolith process greatly reduces the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere compared to the conventional process. Under a previous plan, Monolith planned to build 13 additional units for a total carbon black capacity of about 182,000 tons/year. However, that project was halted last year when Monolith lost more than $900M in loan guarantees from the US Department of Energy.