News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

In response to the growing interest in tyre pyrolysis in the UK and beyond, the British Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) recently launched a sub-group of interested members to address a number of matters of common importance in the field of end-of-life tyre pyrolysis. The aim of the new group which will held its first scoping meeting in January 2021 is to consider pyrolysis in the context of the current regulatory environment as well as barriers and opportunities in the areas of product and market development.

On February 2, 2021, The Morrison and McGowan Governments in Western Australia announced $70 million in joint funding that is expected to drive a more than $174 million recycling boom in Western Australia. Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley, Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management Trevor Evans, and WA Minister for the Environment Stephen Dawson announced the funding under the Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF) program. $20 million from the RMF and $15 million from the State Government will leverage investments across eight new projects processing approximately 140,000 tonnes of Western Australian plastic and tyre waste every year. The Western Australian Government remains committed to awarding $5 million in industrial zoned land in the future.

In Kuwait, the Salmi tire stockpile is referred to as a constant source of fires and air pollution. As part of efforts to reduce and promote the end-of-life tire recycling in Kuwait, the Green Rubber Recycling company, which was established in 2013, creates a variety of products which utilize recycled tire rubber. Kuwait Times recently published an article about the Green Rubber Recycling highlighting company’s achievements. “Located in Amghara area, about 30 kilometers from Kuwait City, the tire recycling factory makes 100% recycled rubber tiling in brick or tile format for all types of locations including children’s play places, gyms, sports arenas as well as filling for gardens, farms and elsewhere,” the magazine writes.

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Attempting to cut costs while launching a tire recycling or pyrolysis business, companies often fall prey to low-quality equipment manufacturers whose equipment does not fulfill to their promises. Typically, such a low quality equipment has far more attractive prices and very often comes from countries, where labor and material costs are still very low. Although seemingly benefitting its buyer through low initial capital investment, such equipment can kill a young pyrolysis company or seriously undermine its operation. In this article Weibold focuses on issues of low-priced pyrolysis machinery and sheds light on the most common problems occurring with such pyrolysis equipment suppliers.

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.

Klean Industries Inc., a cleantech company specialized in the conversion of waste into energy and recovered resources, announced in mid-January 2021 that they have been nominated for an award in the Business Innovation category of the first edition of The Recircle Awards. As a technology pioneer, Klean say they recognize the challenges of creating, financing and successfully deploying innovative technologies that reduce the consumption of virgin resources and recovery of valuable materials and energy from end-of-life tires. As one of the pioneers in the advanced thermal treatment of scrap tires, waste plastic and municipal solid waste, Klean continues to advance its technology offering for its customers and new clients alike with the rollout of the KleanLoop™ Blockchain DApp and its Distributed Ledger Technology (“DLT”).

Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro) – a Swedish tire pyrolysis equipment supplier and operator – reports it has received an order from Michelin for engineering services and technical documentation at a value of approximately SEK 4 million (EUR 400,000). According to the company, the order includes engineering services as well as documentation for Enviro’s patented technology for material recovery of end-of-life-tires and form a basis for the negotiations about a strategic partnership, which the parties have been engaged in since April 2020.

On January 22, 2021, Tyre & Rubber Recycling brought out Episode 19 of its Podcast, where Ewan Scott interviewed Kadar Murthy from Boston Materials. In the interview, Kadar Murthy, the CCO of Boston Materials gives his thoughts on the state of the tyre pyrolysis sector and the key challenges players face making it a success.