HOUSTON – At the 2024 Compounding World Expo North America, global specialty chemicals company Orion S.A. (NYSE: OEC) will spotlight its new acetylene-based conductive additives plant. In addition, Orion (Booth C411) will showcase its premium acetylene-based PRINTEX kappa 100 BEADS, new circular carbon blacks and its new high-jet PRINTEX® chroma 500 BEADS for engineered plastics that require the highest aesthetic quality. The 2024 Compounding World Expo is set for Nov. 13-14 in Cleveland.
Orion broke ground in April 2024 on a plant in La Porte, Texas, that will be the only U.S. facility producing acetylene-based conductive additives. When the site begins operation, expected in the second quarter of 2025, it will increase the availability of acetylene black for use in wire and cable, lithium-ion batteries and other applications.
“We will equip North American manufacturers with a consistent supply of domestically produced acetylene-based conductive additives,” said Jennifer S. Stroh, Ph.D., Orion vice president of sales and marketing Americas. “We look forward to customizing solutions for customers, developing new conductive products and continually innovating on their behalf.”
A rendering of Orion S.A.’s new plant in La Porte, Texas.
Orion’s premium, acetylene-based PRINTEX kappa 100 BEADS offers excellent dispersibility, exceptionally high cleanliness, purity and conductivity, making it ideal for use in high-voltage (HV) electric transmission cables. PRINTEX kappa 100 BEADS and other conductive additives produced at the La Porte plant are a more sustainable option, with only one-tenth of the carbon footprint of other commonly used materials.
Further demonstrating Orion’s commitment to sustainability, the company’s new circular grades are produced from end-of-life tire pyrolysis oil. Testing shows the same conductivity properties, high purity level, jetness and tinting strength as regular specialty carbon blacks.
Orion’s latest innovation is PRINTEX chroma 500 BEADS, the first in a series of new higher-value specialty grades for the polymers market. Designed for engineered plastics that require high-quality aesthetics, PRINTEX chroma 500 BEADS features an excellent balance of high jetness and dispersibility for a shiny, glossy finish.
For more information about the Orion portfolio for polymers, including PRINTEX kappa 100 BEADS and PRINTEX chroma 500 BEADS, contact the Orion sales team here.
About Orion S.A.
Orion S.A. (NYSE: OEC) is a leading global supplier of carbon black, a solid form of carbon produced as powder or pellets. The material is made to customers’ exacting specifications for tires, coatings, ink, batteries, plastics and numerous other specialty, high-performance applications. Carbon black is used to tint, colorize, provide reinforcement, conduct electricity, increase durability and add UV protection. Orion has four innovation centers and produces carbon black at 15 plants worldwide, offering the most diverse variety of production processes in the industry. The company’s corporate lineage goes back more than 160 years to Germany, where it operates the world’s longest-running carbon black plant. Orion is a leading innovator, applying a deep understanding of customers’ needs to deliver sustainable solutions. For more information, please visit orioncarbons.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement. New risk factors and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible to predict all risk factors and uncertainties, nor can we assess the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information, other than as required by applicable law.
Contacts:
William Foreman
Orion S.A.
Director of Corporate Communications and Government Affairs [email protected]
Direct: +1 832-445-3305
HOUSTON – Orion S.A. (NYSE: OEC), a global specialty chemicals manufacturer, announced today that Natalia Scherbakoff has been appointed the company’s new chief technology officer.
She will succeed David Deters, who for nearly a decade led a global innovation program that made Orion a leader in developing sustainable materials, battery additives and other technology in the carbon black industry. Deters announced his retirement earlier this year and will remain with Orion through the end of 2024 to ensure a seamless transition.
Scherbakoff joins Orion from Trinseo, a specialty materials company, where she served as the vice president of Technology & Innovation, overseeing global research, development and technology innovation with sustainability and circular solutions being a key underlying focus. She also supported key growth initiatives as well as mergers and acquisitions. Scherbakoff was a member of Trinseo’s Corporate Environmental, Social and Governance Council.
“Natalia has broad global experience, a track record of moving ideas through the development process to successful product launches and commercial savvy. She combines strong people skills with a passion for driving innovation and achieving tangible outcomes,” Orion CEO Corning Painter said. “She is arriving at an exciting time here at Orion, and I am looking forward to her building on the success we have had under David’s leadership in batteries, circular products, coatings and other customer applications.”
Before Trinseo, Scherbakoff was the vice president of Research Innovation & Product Lines at Plastic Omnium, a French automotive supplier now known as OPmobility. She also served as the general manager of Specialty Composites and the director of Global Innovation at Owens Corning, a building materials maker.
Scherbakoff is a non-executive board member at specialty materials producer Clayens NP and is also a member of the Forbes Technology Council.
She holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Macromolecular Science from Case Western Reserve University (U.S.), a Chemical Engineering degree from Mauá Engineering University (Brazil) and an MBA from Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil). She is fluent in English, French, Portuguese, Italian and Russian.
Scherbakoff will be based at Orion’s main innovation hub in Cologne, Germany, and will also oversee the company’s technical centers in China, South Korea and the U.S. She will continue to build Orion’s innovation capabilities, including leveraging our new Battery Innovation Center in Cologne with a full array of production, testing and diagnostic equipment.
She will also oversee Orion’s €12.8 million investment – which includes €6.4 million in funding from the German government and European Union – to further develop and demonstrate a climate-neutral process for producing carbon black from alternative carbon sources. The technology is designed to improve Orion’s yield and throughput in the production of carbon black using circular feedstocks.
About Orion S.A.
Orion S.A. (NYSE: OEC) is a leading global supplier of carbon black, a solid form of carbon produced as powder or pellets. The material is made to customers’ exacting specifications for tires, coatings, ink, batteries, plastics and numerous other specialty, high-performance applications. Carbon black is used to tint, colorize, provide reinforcement, conduct electricity, increase durability and add UV protection. Orion has four innovation centers and produces carbon black at 15 plants worldwide, offering the most diverse variety of production processes in the industry. The company’s corporate lineage goes back more than 160 years to Germany, where it operates the world’s longest-running carbon black plant. Orion is a leading innovator, applying a deep understanding of customers’ needs to deliver sustainable solutions. For more information, please visit orioncarbons.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement. New risk factors and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible to predict all risk factors and uncertainties, nor can we assess the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information, other than as required by applicable law.
Contact:
William Foreman
Orion S.A.
Director of Corporate Communications and Government Affairs [email protected]
Direct: +1 281-889-7833
Christopher Kapsch
Orion S.A.
Vice President of Investor Relations [email protected]
Direct: +1 281-974-0155
HOUSTON – Orion S.A. (NYSE: OEC), a global specialty chemicals company, announced today it has launched PRINTEX® Nature 35 – a carbon black made of 100% bio-circular feedstocks.
The new product provides the same performance as Orion’s PRINTEX® 35 and can be used for a wide variety of printing applications, including food packaging, books, cataloges, brochures and other printed media.
“PRINTEX® Nature 35 is an excellent solution for the growing number of customers who want to increase the biogenic content of their ink formulations so that they can fulfill their sustainability targets,” said Thomas Weprich, director of marketing for Printing Systems at Orion “It is important to note that our bio-circular feedstocks are not used for human food or animal feed and therefore do not pose a risk to food security.”
The new product is produced at a plant in Western Europe with International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC PLUS), which verifies the traceability of sustainable raw materials in Orion’s value chain.
About Orion S.A.
Orion S.A. (NYSE: OEC) is a leading global supplier of carbon black, a solid form of carbon produced as powder or pellets. The material is made to customers’ exacting specifications for tires, coatings, ink, batteries, plastics and numerous other specialty, high-performance applications. Carbon black is used to tint, colorize, provide reinforcement, conduct electricity, increase durability and add UV protection. Orion has four innovation centers and produces carbon black at 15 plants worldwide, offering the most diverse variety of production processes in the industry. The company’s corporate lineage goes back more than 160 years to Germany, where it operates the world’s longest-running carbon black plant. Orion is a leading innovator, applying a deep understanding of customers’ needs to deliver sustainable solutions. For more information, please visit orioncarbons.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement. New risk factors and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible to predict all risk factors and uncertainties, nor can we assess the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information, other than as required by applicable law.
Contact:
William Foreman
Orion S.A.
Director of Corporate Communications and Government Affairs [email protected]
Direct: +1 281-889-7833
When people talk about battery materials, the discussion is often dominated by metals, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper. Few understand or fully appreciate another important component: conductive additives. Every battery needs them, and some are better than others. This story will examine the various options and describe how high-quality additives make batteries more efficient, safe, long lasting and environmentally friendly. We will also explore how one industry leader — Orion S.A. — is taking an innovative approach in providing conductive additives to the lithium-ion battery industry.
How do batteries work?
To better understand how conductive additives work together with other materials in a battery, it helps to look at how batteries function. Put simply, a battery is a way of storing energy with chemicals. Most batteries have four main parts: a cathode (the positive electrode), the anode (the negative electrode), a separator in between the anode and cathode, and a chemical material called an electrolyte.
The basic principle of a battery is that it stores energy in the electrodes. When a battery is used, this stored chemical energy is converted into electrical energy. Electrons move from one electrode through the external circuit, like your electric motor, to the other electrode.
Meanwhile, inside the battery, only ions flow between the electrodes to keep the process going. To maximize the energy and power output of a battery, it’s crucial that electrons can flow with minimal resistance. However, most electrode materials have poor electrical conductivity, meaning they naturally have high resistance. To address this, conductive additives are incorporated into the electrode materials. These additives form conductive pathways that facilitate the efficient transfer of electrons during both charging and discharging, ensuring better battery performance and higher efficiency.
What is carbon black?
One of the most common types of conductive additives used in all commercial batteries is carbon black. It is a solid form of carbon produced as powder or pellets. For more than a century, carbon black has been used as a conductive additive in the negative electrode of lead-acid batteries for automotive batteries and industrial batteries. In recent years, demand has been growing among producers of lithium-ion batteries.
Almost all the carbon black in the world is produced with what is called the furnace process. The raw material used in the process is usually heavy oil or coal tar, which is heated in a furnace. This tends to be messy process with a large carbon footprint.
Some batteries use carbon nanotubes — hollow tubes made of rolled-up graphene sheets. They offer high conductivity; however, the production process also creates substantial pollution, and the materials are cumbersome to implement in battery manufacturing processes. This ultimately makes the material an expensive additive in the battery.
There is a much cleaner way to make a conductive additive. It involves using acetylene gas, which is virtually free of impurities. Acetylene gas is an industrial byproduct from the process for making ethylene, which is used in polyester fibers, films, plastics and other everyday materials.
Plants that make acetylene-based conductive additives for batteries are usually located near ethylene facilities, which supply the acetylene via a pipeline.
“The technology is much friendlier to the environment because when we make acetylene-based conductive additives, we use an industrial byproduct – acetylene gas – that is often burned for power generation, creating significant CO2 emissions,” said Dr. Adrian Steinmetz, global vice president for batteries at Orion S.A. “We repurpose and upcycle the material to make high-value additives that play a critical role in lithium-ion batteries that are key for the global shift to electrification.”
Orion’s competitors in China make acetylene-based conductives with acetylene made from calcium carbide feedstock, sourced from the coal industry. Compared with those products, Orion’s acetylene-based PRINTEX kappa 100 additive has an up to 90% lower carbon footprint.
Acetylene’s Advantages
Plants that produce conductive additives with acetylene gas are virtually zero-waste facilities with minimal nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx) emissions.
Orion’s acetylene process yields only 0.2 tons of CO2 per ton of product, compared with over 1.6 tons of CO2 per ton for the furnace process.
“In other words, approximately 90% of the carbon is retained in our product, resulting in a carbon footprint that is remarkably eight times lower than conductives made with the furnace process,” Dr. Steinmetz said.
Acetylene-based conductive additives have other significant advantages.
One advantage is that the material is hydrophobic and doesn’t absorb water.
“From a storage and handling perspective, this is beneficial for battery manufacturers because limiting moisture is important for the safety and lifespan of batteries,” said Dr. Steinmetz, who joined Orion last year to lead a new team for batteries.
Another important advantage for acetylene-based conductives is their high purity. The material has super low metal content and the lowest concentration of any other non-metallic impurities.
“This is critical for the longevity and safety of a lithium-ion battery,” Dr. Steinmetz said. “If the metal content is too high, you destroy the life of the battery and might create the risk of uncontrollable thermal runaway reactions. By using acetylene gas as a feedstock, we create a material with high purity and low metal concentrations, typically below five parts per million.”
Orion’s History
Orion’s corporate lineage stretches back more than 160 years to Germany, where the company has the longest-operating carbon black plant. The company has been supplying battery makers across the world for over a century. The car industry has long been one of Orion’s biggest customers, and about 75% of the company’s produced volume ends up in automotive applications.
Orion’s acetylene pant in Berre-l’Étang
In 2018, the company expanded its strategy to focus more on the lithium-ion battery industry when it purchased a plant that makes acetylene-based additives in the southern French city of Berre-l’Étang, close to the port city of Marseilles. With the facility, Orion became the sole producer of acetylene-based conductives in Europe, and the company’s products have been qualified by market-leaders in the lithium-ion battery industry.
During the second half of 2025, Orion will open a plant in La Porte, Texas – close to Houston – that will be the only facility producing acetylene-based conductives in the U.S. The facility will effectively quadruple Orion’s manufacturing capacity of acetylene-based conductives.
By having a plant in the U.S., Orion will be able to significantly reduce shipping times – a major concern and expense in the industry – to gigafactories in Nevada, Georgia, Michigan and other states. Ocean transit alone can take up to 40 days, not including additional time for pre-carriage from production plants. From Orion’s plant in Texas, it will take just four days to reach Nevada and one to three days for other locations.
“Most importantly, shipping costs within the U.S. would likely be only 20% to 40% of the cost associated with overseas transport,” said Dr. Michael Rohde, director of Global Marketing for Batteries at Orion.
The company also uses furnace technology to make the conductive additive at its plant in Cologne, Germany. Orion plans to expand production in Asia.
“We will be where our customers are,” Rohde said. “We already have capacity in Germany and France, and we will soon add the U.S. and Asia.”
Orion’s plant in La Porte, Texas, is scheduled to open in 2025.
Expanding R&D
One of the most important points to understand about carbon black is that it is an essential specialty chemical – not a commodity – that must be engineered to fit the technical specifications of customers. So, it is vital for a company to have advanced research-and-development capabilities.
“What truly sets Orion apart from competitors is our customer-centric approach,” Rohde. “We prioritize understanding and replicating our customer’s process conditions, enabling us to provide tailor-made solutions for their unique needs.”
Since buying the French plant in 2018, Orion has tripled the size of its laboratory. In 2023, the company opened a Battery Innovation Center at its main innovation hub in Cologne. The center includes a comprehensive suite of state-of-the-art production, testing and diagnostic equipment. It will accelerate Orion’s product and process development and foster close collaboration with customers to spur innovation and address evolving market needs.
“The laboratory has a wide variety of capabilities, including dispersion, slurry mixing and cell testing,” said Dr. Amaury Augeard, who brought to Orion more than a decade of experience working with batteries in the automotive industry when he joined the company as the head of innovation for batteries.
“We can also mimic customer-testing procedures, provide research and development that optimizes the performance of new grades as well as tailor make products and process development in close cooperation with our customers,” Dr. Augeard added.
The company has played a leading role in HiQ-CARB, an EU-funded project focused on developing more sustainable, affordable and high-quality carbon black additives for lithium-ion batteries. The consortium includes seven leading European industry players, research institutes and universities. In 2024, HiQ-CARB won third place in the EIT Innovation Awards, honoring Europe’s most promising innovators.
In summary, conductive additives are an essential component in modern batteries, ensuring high performance and long-term durability. Orion’s innovative approach, particularly with its acetylene-based conductive additives, sets new standards in both sustainability and quality for the battery industry.
With over 160 years of experience and a strong global presence, Orion is well-positioned to serve the growing demand for high-quality conductive additives across all regions. As the world shifts toward electrification, Orion continues to play a key role in supporting this transition with cutting-edge technology and a commitment to environmental responsibility.
She will succeed David Deters, who for nearly a decade led a global innovation program that made Orion a leader in developing sustainable materials, battery additives and other technology in the carbon black industry. Deters announced his retirement earlier this year and will remain with Orion through the end of 2024 to ensure a seamless transition.
