News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

In Canada, the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority (RPRA) is expected to replace the Ontario Tire Stewardship (OTS) program that will stop operating as a scrap tire regulator in the end of 2018. According to forecasts, the RPRA’s management will differ from the OTS program that had been in charge of millions of dollars – the substantial sums had been spent to cover tire disposal and tire recycling expenditures.

According to the document, the growth, at some extent, is a result of the anti-Dengue campaign which was launched to alert the public of the threats that may arise when tires are abandoned and serve as breeding place for mosquitos, the report added. The document went on claiming that the rate for tire recycling now exceeds the one of aluminum.

As an example, TSA refers to rubber-modified asphalt testing made by the local road authorities and later published by Australian Asphalt Pavement Association. Also, TSA referred to a project launched by the University of Melbourne aiming to develop an optimum blend of permeable paving that uses recycled tires to create footpaths, bike roads and low-volume traffic roads which also can provide water to nearby trees.

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We are glad to announce that our team has been enriched by an expert in tire pyrolysis, Pavol Fehér, PhD! To introduce our new expert to you, we list below his qualifications and professional background. Focus of tire pyrolysis and fuel quality enhancement Pavol Fehér worked on all aspects of thermal conversion of waste materials: from feedstock preparation to end products in R&D projects at Slovnaft Refinery and MOL Group. He researched treatment feasibility of waste materials, particularly waste tires and plastics, and worked with technologies designed to improve pyrolytic fuels.

According to Hidde Smit – a consultant and analyst of Rubber Forecasts – natural rubber (NR) prices will be going up during the next two quarters of 2017 before commodity surplus weighs in on the market again. Price increase will occur due to severe winter season in Thailand as well as reduction in tapping activities. In his speech during the Tire Technology Expo in Hannover, Germany held this February, Mr. Smit pointed out that tapping intensities in rubber-producing countries went down predominantly due to decreased prices since 2013 (below USD 2.00) as well as severe floods in Thailand – the biggest natural rubber producing country – the beginning of the year.

TreadWright, a US-based company that renovates old tires in a sustainable manner producing a totally new rubber for vehicles, claims that their innovative product is cost-effective, durable, top-quality and environment-friendly. The company takes used tire casings and remolds new rubber onto the old casings– this procedure prevents accumulation of waste tires on landfills and finds use for thousands of discarded tires.

Oil makes up approximately 35-45% of pyrolysis output depending on process conditions. Recovered fuel oil consists of three fractions with the middle fraction prevailing and it cannot be considered a substitute for traditional fuels before purification and sometimes additional treatment. Width of application of tire-derived pyrolysis oil depends on regulations in particular countries where a project is carried out. In countries with strict environmental protection regulations pyrolysis oil may require additional treatment and refinement, which in turn will increase production costs and lower profit margins.

On the 6th of February, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) announced opening a committee which will develop standards for the recovered carbon black (rCB). The goal of the ASTM’s new committee D36 will be to establish and update standards in end-of-life tire (ELT) and scrap rubber decomposition, standards in material characteristics and sustainability. ASTM declared that the committee will be formed and governed by the members of its existing committee on carbon black (D24) who engaged in working with a vast portfolio of standards on recycled carbon black goods.