News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

On September 9 2020, Ministry of Education and Research of Germany reported about its newly launched innovation forum “End-of-Life Tire Recycling”. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the framework of the “SME Innovation Forums” funding guidelines. The aim is to initiate an interdisciplinary network from business and science in the field of innovation. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to facilitate dismantling the mountain of used tires in the country and continue to fully recycle old rubber and tires, even in a rapidly changing market.

The first seven months of 2020 has witnessed an 8.9% year-over-year (y/y) fall in the world production and a 14.0% y/y fall in world consumption of natural rubber. Based on preliminary estimates available up to July 2020 from individual countries, and anticipated figures for the rest of the year, the world production in the year 2020 is anticipated at 13.149 million tons, down 4.9% from the previous year. This is slightly lower than the outlook for 2020 reported in July 2020 which was 13.195 million tons, down 4.5% from the previous year. The outlook for world consumption in 2020 is scaled down to 12.544 million tons or down 8.9 % from the previous year. The consumption outlook for 2020 as reported in July 2020 was 12.754 million tons, down 7.3% from the previous year.

To make end-of-life tire collection easier when the volumes of tires do not require the use of a large trailer, the end-of-life tire management sector in France is now equipped with small containers – eAZyBox system. The measure was introduced by Aliapur – French waste tire management company – and allows to significantly decrease manual labor when collecting tires. Aliapur says that during the last year the first 50 units have been delivered to collectors in the end-of-life tire management sector.

The Municipality of Benghazi announced recently that its recycling plant for end-of-life tires went into operation. The Municipality says the plant will use end-of-life tires scattered and stockpiles throughout the municipality and recycle them to convert them from waste and end-of-life material into added value products that contribute to the national economy.

Swedish tire pyrolysis equipment manufacturer and operator – Scandinavian Enviro Systems – reports about market expectations that can significantly influence the company’s profitability. Below, we cite the company’s recent press release describing the matter. Over the past year, Scandinavian Enviro Systems AB (publ, “Enviro”) has noticed a dramatic increase in interest in the oil — known as pyrolysis oil — that the company can extract from end-of-life tires using its proprietary technology. The oil has a high bio content due to the natural rubber in tires, and in the company’s opinion is therefore of great interest to many players in the market because it could replace fossil-based alternatives.

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.

Supply of pyrolysis oil from end-of-life tires is an important step in the commercialization of BASF’s ChemCyclingTM project. Moreover, BASF sees pyrolysis oil from end-of-life tires is an additional raw material source next to oil from mixed plastic waste. The new agreement stipulates that partners will conduct a joint feasibility study that targets the adaption of New Energy’s proprietary pyrolysis technology to the conversion of other plastic waste streams.

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In August 2020, the Portuguese Technical Commission CT-181 “Produtos reciclados de pneus” (Recycled Products from Tires) sent its official response to the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) with regard to ECHA’s proposed restrictions for the use of crumb rubber in synthetic turf sports fields. Earlier in 2019 and 2020, ECHA proposed an outright ban on crumb rubber use where the particle size was <5mm or a thread length was <15mm. This recommendation to the European Commission was to include a six-year adoption period from 2021.