Ingevity to Upgrade Carbon Pellet Plant in Virginia

Specialty chemicals and carbon materials producer Ingevity Corporation plans to invest about $15 million to add new pellet extrusion technology to its production facility in Covington, VA, the firm announced in a recent press release. The upgrades will lift the site’s extrusion capacity by 10% to 20% as the company works to meet rising demand for activated carbon pellets. 

“Our Performance Materials segment continues to experience an unprecedented demand for its advanced activated carbon pellet products for automotive applications,” Michael Wilson, the president and chief executive officer of Ingevity said in a statement. “As global regulations become more stringent, we will continue to invest in our production and technical capabilities to meet our customers’ requirements.”

The project is slated for completion by the third quarter of 2019. Activated carbon pellets produced by the company are used by the automotive industry in gasoline vapor emission control systems. A Ingevity plant at Changshu, China currently uses the new extrusion technology and the firm plans to install the equipment at another facility currently under construction in the country.

“As the overall automotive application grows for our extruded activated carbon pellet products, our customers are shifting from an existing product to a new, improved product that requires new technologies to manufacture,” Ed Woodcock, executive vice president and president of the firm’s Performance Materials segment, said in the release. “With the extrusion capability upgrades and increased extrusion capacity at our Covington facility, we will be more prepared to meet not only rising demand, but enhanced quality requirements.”

An investment of about $35 million was announced this May to expand the Covington plant’s carbon activation capacity by some 20%. In late July, Powder & Bulk Solids reported that Ingevity was relocating its headquarters from North Charleston, SC to another site in the state. The company operates two carbon activation plants and a “honeycomb” scrubber facility in the U.S. 

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