News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

Following on from last years' hugely successful event, Smithers have announced Recovered Carbon Black Conference plans to travel to Barcelona on the 7-8 November 2023. About the Recovered Carbon Black Conference. Recognized within the industry as an essential platform for experts and innovators, the programme offers a 360-degree perspective of the recovered carbon black market, with key industry leaders from across the globe sharing their expertise, case studies and latest findings. The Recovered Carbon Black Conference provided a much-needed platform for experts and innovators, who research, develop and commercialise recovered carbon black to stay updated on the latest market developments, challenges and opportunities.

Episode 45 of the Tyre Recycling podcast features an interview with Martin von Wolfersdorff, the Managing Director of Wolfersdorff Consulting Berlin. During the interview Martin discusses the current state of play in the tyre pyrolysis sector and the changes seen over the last few year with manufacturers stating to dictate the specifications of their requirements. Tyre Recycling Podcast’s interviewer Ewan Scott also asked Martin to talk about the success of the Smithers Rcb Conference and the problems and opportunities that could exist from the potential crumb rubber restrictions.

During Tire Technology Expo 2023, which takes place from March 21-23 in Hannover, Germany, Michelin won two international awards, bestowed by a panel of experts from the tire industry, the academic world, and the press: • The Tire Manufacturer of the Year award, won for the sixth time, an absolute record. • The Environmental Achievement of the Year- Tire Design award, for the first two tires approved for road use (cars and buses) that include 45% and 58% sustainable materials respectively. This award belongs to a new category, rewarding the technological advances in the industry that are most respectful of the environment.

According to the latest press release by Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA), regional Queensland is suffering with illegal tire dumping and dangerous tire stockpiles representing a missed opportunity for Australia’s northeast state. By recovering resources like steel and rubber from end-of-life tires, Queensland can build high-performance roads and generate valuable commercial markets that promote local jobs and manufacturing across the state. “Putting crumb rubber in roads is a winning circular economy formula already happening across Australia and around the world. “It’s time for Queensland State and Local government to start mandating their roads be made using Australian crumb rubber. By not mandating locally available rubber resources for roads, Queensland risks letting its road sector fall behind on industry best practice,” says Lina Goodman, CEO of Tyre Stewardship Australia.

Scrap tires go through numerous recycling processes before they become new tires. A distinction is made between material recycling (sorting, separating and granulating), raw material recycling (e.g., pyrolysis process) and chemical recycling as the final finishing step of pyrolysis worldwide. As an integrated solution provider with over 40 years of experience in the tire industry, Zeppelin Systems collaborates with international partners in all aspects of scrap tire recycling. The German company RCB Nanotechnologies specializes in the finishing of raw-recovered carbon black. The company thus perfectly complements Zeppelin Systems' wide range of services throughout the sustainable circular economy for the tire industry.

Contec S.A., a startup recovering industrial raw materials from used tires, has raised EUR 10 million in their latest funding round. These funds will be used to expand the efficiency of Contec's plant (Szczecin, Poland) almost threefold. Two investors are providing the funds: HiTech ASI, the corporate venture capital fund of Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, and the Warsaw Equity Group, which is the majority shareholder. Contec S.A. invests in increasing processing capacity The lead investor of the round is HiTech ASI, managed by VINCI - a subsidiary of Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. The second investor is Contec's major shareholder, the Warsaw Equity Group. The funds obtained (EUR 8 million - HiTech ASI and EUR 2 million - Warsaw Equity Group) will be used to increase the processing capacity of Contec's Szczecin plant. Once completed, the plant will be able to nominally process 33,000 tons of used tires per year – three times more than today. In addition, the modernization will increase the production capacity of post-pyrolysis oil and recovered carbon black.

As per the Tyre Recovery Association’s (TRA) press release, following strenuous lobbying by the TRA to persuade regulators to do much more to prevent rogue operators using T8 exemptions as a cover for the illegitimate handling of Britain’s end-of-life tyres, DEFRA announced in February that it would act to end the current exemptions regime. The TRA welcomed this news but has urged DEFRA Secretary of State Thérèse Coffey MP to now act speedily, pointing out that Scotland had already moved to eliminate exemptions fully seven years ago. In a response received from Rebecca Pow MP, DEFRA Minister for Environmental Quality and Resilience the TRA is encouraged to learn that it is also the wish of government to now see swift progress in finally ending exemptions in both England and Wales and is moving to the necessary affirmative legislation to amend the 2016 Environmental Permitting Regulations. See a copy of the letter below:

Zeppelin Systems entered into another important partnership in the mechanical recycling sector on February 7, 2023. The Italian Technology group formed by RubberJet and Vertech specialized in recycling particularly large scrap tires, for example from trucks and construction and mining machinery. High-quality rubber recyclates are made from scrap tires measuring up to four meters in size, which can later be used to manufacture new tires. According to Zeppelin Systems, the patented and proprietary method is 100% environmentally friendly. According to current figures from the AZuR network (innovation forum for scrap tire recycling, of which Zeppelin Systems is a member), around 3.5 million tons of scrap tires are generated in Europe each year. In Germany alone, around 550,000 tons of scrap tires were accrued in 2021. If every scrap tire in Europe was recycled, around 2.45 million tons of CO2 emissions would be saved.

On March 14 2023, Reoil Sp. z o.o. – a company recycling end-of-life tires using continuous pyrolysis process, announced it had signed an LOI with Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd – a global tire manufacturer headquartered in Japan – for the commercialization of recovered carbon black (rCB). Through this agreement, the two companies will jointly develop products allowing Reoil’s recovered carbon black to partially replace virgin carbon blacks that produced from fossil fuels. About Reoil Reoil was one of the world’s pioneers in developing a successful continuous pyrolysis technology, which it implemented in its first end-of-life tire recycling plant in Bukowno (Małopolskie, Poland) yet in 2015.