Orion S.A., a global specialty chemicals producer, is investing €12.8 million to further develop and demonstrate a climate-neutral process for producing carbon black—used in multiple products, included wire and cable—from alternative carbon sources.

A press release said that a research facility is being built for the project at Orion’s main innovation center at its plant in Cologne, Germany. The technology is designed to improve Orion’s yield and throughput in the production of carbon black using circular feedstocks and thus potentially reduce the carbon footprint of the process by a significant amount. This could accelerate the shift to a circular economy and feed the growing demand for sustainable materials in the tire industry.

Half of the €12.8 million Orion plans to invest in this initiative, called the “Clean Carbon Black Research and Development Project,” will be provided by the decarbonization program of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action. It will also be supported by the EU’s NextGenerationEU fund.

“We are grateful for the funding from the EU and the German government,” said Orion CEO Corning Painter. “It shows a great commitment to innovation and creating a circular economy.”