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BlackCycle – the research project coordinated by Michelin and aimed to enable a massive circular economy of tires by designing world-first processes to produce new tires from end-of-life tires (ELTs) – is now followed by WhiteCycle project.

This special episode of the Tyre Recycling Podcast features two experts from the ambitious Blackcycle Project, which is working to create a circular economy model for enf-of-life tires. Stelios Stefanidis, a Collaborating Researcher at CERTH, and Pascal Klein, CEO of Pyrum Innovations, respond to questions from the editor Ewan Scott about the most recent advancements in the Blackcycle Project.

In its recent press release, Michelin says that the BlackCycle project is officially funded by the EU in May 2020. The BlackCycle project involves 13 organizations in a unique European public-private partnership that will demonstrate the technical, environmental, and economic viability of world-first circular processes. The consortium will develop specific solutions to produce sustainable raw materials for tires: ELT collection and feedstock selection, pyrolysis optimization, oil refining and valorization, furnace process optimization, and sustainable tire performance assessment. Michelin says that as early as 5-6 years after the project, close to 1 out of every 2 European ELTs will be incorporated into the only virtuous cycle of this magnitude amongst all industrial sectors for the recovery of end-of-life products.

The tire waste management scheme, RepakELT launched in Ireland two years ago demonstrated effectiveness as the country managed to recycle 97 percent of scrap tires during the first year of the project, the Irish Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, Richard Bruton T.D. said in a recent report. The official emphasized that the scheme is being further worked on as it received 15 recommendations for improvement; stakeholders are expected to consider them. Burton also stressed that it was important to make tire manufacturers take responsibility for the environmental impact of tires.

The parties plan to complete the DFS by the end of June 2021 and anticipate the project being financed before the end of 2021, with construction taking place in 2022 and operations starting in 2023. It’s envisioned that with Klean’s intellectual property and know-how for the processing of scrap tires and its ability to apply its proven portfolio of IP on a global basis, starting with an operating tire recycling facility in Greece will shorten the project development cycle. This project is expected to transform end-of-life tires into high quality, valuable raw materials primarily a high grade recovered carbon black (“rCB”) and recovered fuel oil or what is known as pyrolysis oil akin to an MDO oil. This plant will be fully integrated with Klean’s proprietary tire char upgrading system that enables the economic conversion of low-value tire char into high-value carbon black replacements which can replace virgin Carbon Black by volumes of 10% up to 100% depending on the specific application. Klean estimates that the carbon emission offsets from the Pyrolysis Hellas facility will be in excess of 100,000 metric tons annually.

Robert Weibold is speaking at the World Recycling Convention organized by the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) on October 15, 2020. Mr. Weibold will take part in the session “Tyres & Rubber” which will be devoted to breakthrough technology projects to drive circular economy in ELT Recycling. Tyres & Rubber Committee eForum A dynamic BIR Tyres & Rubber Committee eForum earlier this year, in June, covered topics as diverse as COVID’s impact on world tire manufacturing and tire recycling markets, latest tire collection and processing data, benefits and barriers relating to pyrolysis, developments surrounding end-of-waste, and another emerging threat to producers of crumb rubber infill.

State-of-the-art pyrolysis processes are an efficient, viable and sustainable approach for the valorisation of end-of-life tires (ELT) into oil, gas and recovered Carbon Black (rCB). They are thus an important step towards the transition to a low carbon, more sustainable, resource efficient, circular economy in line with the EU Green Deal and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The chemical recycling of end-of-life tires (ELT) via state-of-the-art pyrolysis technologies does not only avoid greenhouse gas emissions compared to today’s conventional production processes, but it also increases the resource efficiency while closing the loop in the transition to a circular economy. However, civil organisations criticise the production of fuel through chemical recycling, sometimes mutilate the terminology, pointing to the associated environmental impacts, while they overlook the fact that modern ELT pyrolysis concepts are not geared towards the production of "fuels" (which, by the way, should not be defined as "recycling" but rather as less preferred "recovery" according to the EU waste hierarchy).

Despite hard efforts of the tire recycling and pyrolysis industry to develop new markets and increase recycling rates, recycled rubber based product markets demonstrate only moderate growth. To tackle the problem and allow thousands of tons of precious materials go back to consumer goods, numerous end-of-life tire management organizations, companies and research labs do their best to find new markets and develop innovative products out of scrap tire rubber.