News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

In a recent press release by Birla Carbon – one of the leaders and innovators in the carbon black industry worldwide – the company announced a partnership for sustainability with Circtec – an end-of-life tire pyrolysis operator focused on production of renewable fuels and recovered carbon black. According to the press release: Circtec will become the largest producer of Sustainable Carbonaceous Materials Birla Carbon to deliver Sustainable Carbonaceous Materials to customers through its extensive product development capabilities Partnership to create the single largest source of Sustainable Carbonaceous Materials for the tire, mechanical rubber goods, and plastic industries

Now that Australia’s first crumb rubber bitumen blending plant opened, more end-of-life tires will be used to manufacture useful value-added products, like durable rubberized asphalt, rubberized bitumen blends, rubber coatings, etc. Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA) reports that world-leading equipment specifically designed for blending crumbed rubber and bitumen has been installed and commissioned for the first time in Australia by construction giant Fulton Hogan in partnership with Tyre Stewardship Australia.

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.

CEMalta will be working on a number of projects and initiatives, including the beverage container refund scheme, end-of-life tires, construction waste, food waste, and textile waste. the country’s agency previously known as the Resource Recovery and Recycling Agency is being renamed to Circular Economy Malta (CEMalta) to promote the continual use of resources.

In spring 2021, recycled rubber flooring goods by North West Rubber (British Columbia, Canada) were rated as "Acceptable for an Operating Room Area" according to a third-party independent cleaning study. According to the results of the third-party testing which highlights the effectiveness of the SportFloor® Stamina line of recycled rubber performance flooring in helping to protect sports complex athletes, visitors, and staff from the risks of microbial contamination. North West Rubber (NWR) commissioned Westech Systems FM Inc. to conduct and report on a third-party independent cleaning audit with the goal of assessing how easy it was to clean and disinfect NWR SportFloor® recycled rubber flooring.

This May, Salvadori – on of the leading technology providers in the field of tire recycling – revealed about its new partnership with Rubberosion and the State of Colorado in the United States, which helps tackle the end-of-life tire recycling problem in Colorado. Below, we are citing Salvadori’s press release. Rubberosion Inc. is referred to as one of the leading providers of value-added end use rubber products for stormwater and erosion control in the United States. Its business began with a vision: find a solution to Colorado’s end-of-life tire problem, which was large tire dumps, one which irrupted in a major tire fire, turning what was considered as an environmental problem into an environmental solution. Over the years, its distribution network grew together with the market demand for their products. To meet the increased production volumes, they started looking for solutions that could help them improve their manufacturing process.

The European Rubber Journal reports that Cabot Corp. – a renowned global producer of carbon black – has seen a significant rise in its second quarter results. The magazine says Cabot “expects the robust and broad-based demand to continue in the second half of the year.” ERJ hightlights that for Cabot, “this has been the second consecutive quarter of record earnings (EBIT) within its Reinforcement Materials segment, which includes the production of rubber carbon black materials.” According to Cabot’s announcement from May 3, 2021, the segment’s earnings rose by 45%, i.e. to $81 million within the first quarter of 2021.

The innovation forum "Scrap Tire Recycling" (AZuR) sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany recently published a large-scale study for its partners. The study is focused on the market positions and requirements of end-of-life tire recyclers and manufacturers of products from recycled tire rubber. Below, we are citing the original article published on the website of AZuR in May 2021. To read the original text in German, please proceed to AZuR’s website.

The European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association – ETRMA – has consolidated data on the management of End of Life Tires for 2019 covering 32 European countries (EU27, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey and UK). According to ETRMA, 94% of end-of-life tires in the 32 countries were collected and treated for material recycling and energy recovery. ETRMA says this situation is quite comparable to the previous years with tire recycling rates fluctuating between 92% and 95%. The European tire industry is committed to an innovative and sustainable economy. End-of-life tires are collected and their treatment is organized across European countries, the vast majority operating under EPR. Secondary raw materials from end-of-life tires are important resources for industries such as construction, automotive and cement.