News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

Black Bear Carbon (“BBC”), the Dutch technology provider for recycling end-of-life tire rubber into recovered Carbon Black (rCB) and renewable petrochemicals, has announced that is had successfully completed a first closing of €7.5M , this is the first step in a fundraising campaign of €78M for its new BBC flagship plant at Chemelot Industrial Park, the Netherlands. The investment round was led by Capricorn Partners from the Capricorn Sustainable Chemistry Fund, with support from Invest-NL, joined by current investors; Brightlands Venture Partners, Siam Cement Chemicals and others.

The European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) has welcomed and lauded a European Commission’s decision to lower the concentration limit of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in synthetic turf infill materials. The news came from the European Rubber Journal (ERJ) on July 26. The magazine writes that on July 20, the European Commission lowered the limit of PAHs in granules and mulches used as infill materials for synthetic turf or playgrounds from the current 100mg/kg to 20mg/kg.

Eagle International has been known in the tire recycling world for decades as the foremost authority on hydraulic tire sheers and off-the-road (OTR) tire downsizing. Now, Eagle announces their first machine capable of producing rubber mulch. The Eagle Edge 360 is designed to remove high-quality mulch from the treads and sidewalls of OTR tires ranging in sizes from 33-inch through 63-inch rim size. Eagle has developed a unique design that features rasp heads in three locations at varying angles. Multiple rasp heads increase the surface area that can be claimed as mulch and speeds up cycle time. In addition, operators can shred rubber mulch from the tread and sidewall simultaneously.

TSA reports that tire giant Hankook is the latest manufacturer to partner with Tyre Stewardship Australia in a commitment to the responsible disposal of end-of-life tires. The Hankook Tire & Technology Group announced in the end of July it is the newest contributor to the National Tyre Product Stewardship Scheme, taking the total number of importers to nine. Hankook Managing Director Ted Choi said the decision to sign up to the Scheme was recognition of the work of TSA and its achievements. “By cultivating win-win relationships like this one with Tyre Stewardship Australia, Hankook shows it too is a leader in preserving and protecting the environment for the next generation – a responsibility we take seriously,” Mr Choi explained.

Climate change, Covid-19 pandemic and the fight for shipping containers are some of the obstacles that rubber producers face these days. The global rubber market has recently witnessed numerous supply chain disruptions, and now the international economy is challenged by a rubber deficiency, according to CNBC report. The broadcaster spoke to Ohio State University professor Katrina Cornish, who says that the global market is on the verge of ‘a rubber apocalypse’. Rubber is a crucial component used in the making of car tires, and supply chain disruptions can seriously impact the tire recycling industry. According to some forecast quoted by CNBC, the demand for natural rubber will only be increasing, and the NR market could be estimated at nearly $68.5 billion by 2026. And people’s dependence on car tires will keep on boosting the demand for rubber.

In its recent article headlined “Assessing Your Local Tire Recycling Market”, ECO Green Equipment – a prominent award-winning tire recycling equipment manufacturer from Utah, United States – explains about important aspects of running a tire recycling business. Below, we quote the article to share this useful information with our readers. ECO Green writes that according to statistics released by the US Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA), tire recycling efforts are not keeping up with waste tire production. Tire recycling hit a record high in 2013. A whopping 96% of tires found their way to tire recycling facilities instead of stockpiles or landfills. Unfortunately, by 2019, that number had dropped to 76%, highlighting a possible opening in the market for more rubber recycling plants. Recycling waste tires is a great business opportunity that benefits the environment, but can your market support a successful new start-up?

Former Bridgestone plant in French city of Béthune will collect, sort and retread passenger car tires. The agreement on this has been reached by a French retreading specialist Black-Star with the car maintenance company Mobivia with the help of Bridgestone. An integrated tire recycling ecosystem that relies on the circular economy and gives scrap tires a second life will be developed on a special industrial site with the support of iWip subsidiary. Mobivia will provide its auto centers for tire collection. From there, scrap tires will be transported and retreaded. The recycling process will help save up to 80 percent of the original material used in tire production. Each tire will be recycled into 9 kg of rubber and steel.

Orion Engineered Carbons S.A. (NYSE: OEC), one of the leading global suppliers of specialty and high-performance carbon black, has partnered with RISE Research Institutes of Sweden in a project to develop and produce renewable carbon black (rCB). This collaboration represents an important step towards more climate-neutral carbon black production by replacing traditional carbon black feedstock with pyrolysis oil from biomass oil. Orion plans to convert the biomass oil into carbon black using its small-scale furnace reactor in Kalscheuren, Germany and will explore ways to upscale the process to match market demands. Additionally, using a pilot-scale reactor at its site in Piteå, Sweden, RISE will evaluate the use of electrofuels, such as plasma or hydrogen from electrolysis, as sustainable heat sources for the carbon black process.

Aiming at waste reduction and actually creating new economic opportunities, Fiji’s government is funding the new Fijian Stewardship of Tyres with an allocation of $200,000 in the 2021-2022 financial year, Fiji Times report. “It is a tragedy to see used tires ending up in ditches by the road, strewn across the coast, in our communities and it becomes the breeding grounds for mosquitoes,” said Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum while delivering the 2021- 2022 National Budget last Friday. “Rather than being discarded and left to become unsightly breeding grounds for mosquitoes, they can actually be used for productive purposes. “Through this new program, we will be buying back used tires for loose tire imports and imposing a tire recycling levy on all new and second-hand imported vehicles