According to the recent press release, Energy Estate and InfraCo announced a joint venture “REVYRE” to develop and build innovative tire recycling plants in Australia and New Zealand, utilizing two revolutionary technologies – Vertech / RubberJet Valley tire disintegration and Tyromer rubber devulcanization.

The stakeholders say that currently Australia disposes of over 60,000 tons of end-of-life tires (ELTs) by exporting them and approximately 100,000 tons are stockpiled in landfills or stockpiled onsite (predominantly within the mining and agricultural sectors). With the COAG agreed ban on used tire exportation from December 2021 the annual growth in Australia’s tire stockpile will be even greater. New Zealand currently generates 5-6 million ELTs annually which equates to close to 70,000 tons. These units are either shredded locally for domestic burning in cement kilns as Tyre Derived Fuel (TDF) or are baled and exported for use as TDF in Asia, the press release pinpoints.

REVYRE seeks to solve this waste problem through the rollout of its innovative combined recycling technology. The stakeholders report that their projects are modular, scalable and mobile - a total tire recycling process that will destruct and re-purpose any constituent parts of a tire, turning it into a high value polymer product for export and clean high tensile scrap steel. The overall process has near zero waste, emissions or by-products and does not use or produce toxic chemicals.

The stakeholders say the tire-derived polymer (TDP) will be exported for direct re-use in the tire manufacturing process. In particular the process uses no chemicals or solvents, is commercially viable on an industrial scale and environment-friendly. While REVYRE’s solution can address all tire sizes, it is particularly well suited to larger off-the-road (OTR) tires, such as those used in mining and agricultural operations in Australia and New Zealand.

REVYRE’s solution, stakeholders claim, can play a role in sustainably managing current and future tire stockpiles. It is a financially attractive and environmentally superior solution relative to alternative tire disposal options. The REVYRE solution will also support the development of a circular economy for ELTs. The plants will seek to procure renewable energy for operations as part of our dedication to maintaining a low carbon footprint and lessening the environmental impact of the tire production cycle.

Energy Estate and InfraCo are committed to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and implementing the REVYRE solution will help achieve 8 of the 17 SDGs. Production of TDP, according to the stakeholders, will save approximately 94% of the energy required to produce the virgin compounds it replaces, as well as significant savings in oil used and avoided deforestation.

Simon Corbell, Chief Advisor at Energy Estate, commented, “The deployment of REVYRE’s new technology and development of processing plants will be a critical element for developing a circular economy in Australia and will make a significant positive environmental impact when it comes to recycling and waste management. The ability to scale the number of plants creates significant economic benefits for regional Australia and we expect to develop plants in several States. Each operating plant will provide 30 permanent, operational jobs, in addition to the development, construction, installation and commissioning jobs. There will be numerous direct and indirect supply chain job opportunities.”

Given the scale and locations of Australia’s mining industry in particular, there is a sufficient tire disposal requirement to justify at least 2-3 REVYRE plants in each of the mainland states, the press release says.

Luke Panchal, Director of Energy Estate, commented, “Following the tire export ban from 2021, Australia will have annually 160,000 tons of tires stockpiling that it needs to address. This means the need for environmentally and socially responsible and cost effective solutions for managing used tire disposal in Australia is critical – especially for heavy OTR tires. To date, sustainable, environmentally responsible, economic and easy-to-implement recycling options have not been present in Australia. REVYRE delivers this option and is a solution that addresses tire disposal in truly circular process with no emissions and without the use of toxic chemicals. It is a solution that makes economic and environmental sense.”

Shaun Zukor, Director and Co-founder of InfraCo and REVYRE states, “We are extremely happy to have joined forces with Energy Estate to establish multiple facilities in both Australia and New Zealand. We have developed a compelling New Zealand business case with our technology partners from Canada and Europe and we submitted a Provincial Growth Fund application with the New Zealand government in November 2019. Our plans are to start locally with our new partners and to expand into Africa and other territories there-by covering a large part of the globe where our presence will have major environmental, social and economic impacts. The technology allows a true circular economy and deals with a part of the mining tire waste stream that has been extremely difficult to dispose of previously.”

The project is currently receiving interest from foundation customers and investors interested in the growth of sustainable tire recycling and waste management in Australia, New Zealand and globally.

About Energy Estate

Energy Estate is an advisory firm and business accelerator, focused on driving the transformation of the global energy sector. The team brings together experts across the industry, which contributes to an understanding of the energy sector that is collaborative, innovative and holistic. More information: http://www.energyestate.com/

About InfraCo

InfraCo is the current holding company of REVYRE. InfraCo endeavors to discover and invest in new and sustainable technologies that have sound positive impacts on the world's environment.

About REVYRE

REVYRE is a polymer manufacturing business that uses environmentally unimpeachable processing technologies to disintegrate and re-manufacture end of life waste tires with minimal to zero waste and emissions.

About Tyromer

Tyromer Inc. is a company established by the University of Waterloo, Canada, to commercialize the rubber devulcanization technology. Tyre Derived Polymer is produced on an industrial scale and is saleable into new tire and the automotive rubber component manufacturing industry. Tyromer has commercially operational plants in Canada and Asia. Learn more at https://tyromer.com/

About RubberJet Valley

RubberJet Valley specializes in the production of engineered raw materials polymers called RubberJet Powder (RJP™) and RubberJet Granules (RJG™) capable of replacing virgin materials (e.g. Natural Rubber) in a wide range of applications including in new tires.

About Vertech

Vertech is the technical partner of the RubberJet group that provides engineering solutions and systems that have been chosen by numerous companies in the chemical-pharmaceutical industry all over the world as evidenced by the large number of systems installed by the team in the last 35 years in Europe, the United States, South America and Asia. The main customers are multinationals located on the four continents.

Press release by Energy Estate.