News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

A well-established Polish company is looking for a buyer of a waste processing facility based on pyrolysis technology. The business possesses all necessary permits from government and environmental authorities. The equipment is capable of processing end-of-life materials with the following EC waste codes:

CM informs that the demand for tire-derived fuel (TDF) is significantly increasing thanks to its advantages over traditional fuels, such as providing higher heating value than coal or wood. The heat produced from TDF is approximately thirty percent higher than that of coal and more than twice that of wood. TDF also provides lower sulfur oxide emissions when compared with coal, which has a higher sulfur content. Furthermore, combustion of TDF provides better operational consistency than other fuels used in waste-to-energy systems.

Devulcanization is a method of potentially “upgrading” end-of-life tire rubber. Devulcanized rubber is a higher valued form of end-of-life rubber, since devulcanized material can be partly revulcanized and partially replace virgin rubber in specific compounds and applications, including tires. Currently, only a small number of devulcanization systems are operating on industrial scale. These are primarily small-capacity systems, which are devulcanizing rubber production rejects (NR, SBR, NBR, EPDM, Butyl, etc.) or rubber recovered from waste tires. There are different types of devulcanization technologies on the market; among them are: are chemical, purely mechanical, machinal with supercritical CO2, chemical/mechanical, microwave, ultrasonic and organic

Bolder Industries CEO Tony Wibbeler said, “We are always looking for like-minded strategic partners who expand our customer support and service model. Swan Chemical’s parent, Thomas Swan & Co has been distributing, as well as manufacturing chemicals and advanced materials since 1926. Together, we can deliver to more customers, more efficiently so this partnership actually reduces the cost to customers.”

RubberCon together with International Rubber Conference are global conferences organized every year by The International Rubber Conference Organisation (IRCO), which is an association of rubber societies from all around the world which plan the calendar for the main international rubber conferences. Following on from success of RubberCon in April 2019 in Hangzhou in China, the event is returning back to Europe. The venue will be the Novotel Paris Centre Tour Eiffel. RubberCon 2020 (the name is retained despite the rescheduling to 2021) will be around "Environment and Recycling: A Strategic Challenge for Rubber Materials."

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.

New Zealand’s North Canterbury has a huge end-of-life tire stockpile, which has been attracting public attention over the last years and grew into a big problem. Efforts to clean up the stockpile have picked up pace with two parties who are now in a competition race. Press reports that the tire stockpile has been a concern for the community for more than four years, and it was deliberately set alight in 2018. Both removal bids have Environment Canterbury (ECan) backing. New Zealand’s magazine Stuff reports that “Community-led group Accountability Action was formed in response to a lack of action by authorities and enforcement breaches by the companies responsible for the tires, Tyre Recycling Services New Zealand Ltd and 2016 Tyre Shredding Ltd.”

According to the news, the facility will be located in Zaozhuang (Shandong province, China) – headquarter location of Star Smith, who is a renowned producer of glued steel fiber. The source says that the construction involves an investment of EUR 28 million and, after commissioning, will recycle end-of-life tires into some 60,000 tons of high-performance rubber per year. Swiss TRS is known for its “Water Pulse” process, which highly specialized water-jet system pulverizes tire tread into fine powder, free from steel and synthetic fibers and serves as a foundation for producing rubber powder under TRS’ trademark TyreXol.

SLTC – The Latin American Society of Rubber Technology (The Sociedad Latinoamericana de Tecnología del Caucho) – recently proudly announced the launch of their new Recycling Committee. SLTC highlighted its organizational scheme and general objectives, which we describe below. According to the SLTC, the Recycling Committee was born out of the need to find a place where all stakeholders related to tire recycling in Latin America can actively interact to enrich and develop the industry.