Orion Engineered Carbons Borger Plant
Large load · 9440 FM 1559, Borger, TX
Orion Engineered Carbons operates a carbon black plant at Borger in Hutchinson County, Texas, that produces carbon black for rubber and specialty clients. In 2023 the company announced a $60 million project that cut air emissions and upgraded the site's cogeneration system, which converts heat from the carbon black process into electricity. The plant sells surplus electricity back to the power grid, according to trade coverage of that project.
Overview
Orion said the Borger project would eliminate about 23 tons of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions per day, a 90 percent reduction, using new control technology. The $60 million project also upgraded the plant's cogeneration system, which takes heat created by the carbon black production process and converts it to electricity that the plant can use. Orion tied the upgrade to the targets in its sustainability-linked term loan. The company credited its engineers, the Borger team and its contractors with completing the project on time despite the Covid-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions.
Profile
- Grid interaction
- Trade coverage of the Borger project reports that the electricity from the cogeneration system is also sold back to the power grid, so the site acts as a generator as well as a load. The heat source for that generation is the carbon black production process itself, which the upgraded cogeneration system converts to electricity that the plant can use. The project was announced in January 2023 as a $60 million investment, and the surplus sales to the grid are the grid-facing activity that the coverage describes. The state's 2026 permit statement of basis adds that furnace tail gas is primarily routed to a waste heat boiler that produces steam for on-site cogenerators, with excess tail gas controlled by flares.
- Site and corporate listing
- Orion's carbon black brochure lists its production locations, and the Borger site address there is Borger, TX 79007, USA. The Borger plant produces carbon black for rubber and specialty clients, according to trade coverage from January 2023 that covered the emissions project. The emissions project was described as an upgrade at the existing site rather than a new plant, and the company's own statement framed it as a timely completion of a complex project at the Borger team's plant.
Facility
- Activity
- Carbon black
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Site type
- Facility
- Operating status
- Operating
Related records
Timeline
- Jan 25, 2023
- Orion announced a $60 million project at Borger to sharply reduce air emissions with new control technology and upgrade the cogeneration system
Orion reduces air emissions with new technology at Borger, Texas, plant