Ingevity Corp. (North Charleston, S.C.) has expanded its activated carbon production capacity following significant debottlenecking and equipment upgrades completed and verified in late December at its facility in Zhuhai, China. The plant upgrades have effectively increased its capacity by an additional 15% to 20%, helping Ingevity meet the high global demand for its premium, high-capacity pelletized carbon products, used primarily in gasoline vapor emissions control systems in cars, trucks, motorcycles and boats.
The Zhuhai plant has been in operation since 2015 and includes activated carbon production and a state-of-the-art automotive applications laboratory. Ingevity also operates an extrusion facility in Changshu, China; an activated carbon production plant in Wickliffe, Kentucky; an activation and extrusion plant in Covington, Virginia; and a “honeycomb” scrubber plant in Waynesboro, Georgia.
“We continue to see unprecedented demand for our activated carbon products for gasoline vapor emissions control solutions as the global automobile industry works to refill its vehicle inventory pipelines,” said Ed Woodcock, executive vice president and president, Performance Materials, at Ingevity. “Over the last five years, we’ve improved the activation process at our Zhuhai facility, identified bottlenecks and, ultimately, implemented a plan to increase capacity of our world-leading automotive materials. We are excited about expanding our capacity to better supply the world’s largest vehicle market.”