News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

Chemical recycling is an emerging theme in waste management which has the potential to contribute to a low carbon, resource efficient and sustainable economy. In enabling the use of carbonaceous waste as secondary carbon feedstock to replace fossil resources to produce organic chemicals, it could support efforts to transit carbon intensive industries from the linear to a circular carbon economy. A sustainable society with climate-neutral processes requires significant adjustments in the value chains, which are only possible through innovations. In the “Waste4Future” lighthouse project, seven institutions of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Germany) are pooling their expertise to develop new solutions for this goal, from the raw material basis to material flows and process engineering to the end of a product’s life cycle. They aim to increase energy and resource efficiency when using plastics and thus pave the way for a chemical industry that requires fewer fossil raw materials and causes fewer emissions.

Yogesh Gaikwad, a technical consultant for carbon black, recently joined the team of Weibold. Yogesh has 13+ years of experience in chemicals and material science. Throughout his career, he has been analyzing petroleum products and participating in leading R&D projects in the carbon black industry. A graduate of an MSc program in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Mumbai, Yogesh worked with carbon black production technologies and feedstock, focused at final product applications. Working as a lab analyst, quality assurance officer, research associate, laboratory manager, technical and product development manager, he supported Gharda Chemicals, Geo Chemical Laboratories Pvt., Birla Carbon, Phillips Carbon Black and BKT Carbon.

Continental’s ContiRe.Tex tire was chosen as the GALAP Product of the Year 2023 in the Tire category after competing against 38 other candidates. On Wednesday, December 14, the Award was presented at the Torre Glries in Barcelona. The use of recycled materials in tire manufacture was pioneered by ContiRe.Tex technology, which achieved an 8.2 out of 10 rating from a sample of about 100,000 users. With its ContiRe.Tex technology, which aims to make the manufacturing, use, and recyclability of its tires more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, Continental just got one step closer to the goal of tires made from 100% recycled or sustainable materials. ContiRe.Tex utilizes between 9 to 15 polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles per tire, depending on the tire size.

Murfitts Industries, the UK’s leading tire recycling and reprocessing company, and ETIA announced that the two companies intend to form a unique partnership delivering commercial scale solutions for recycling of end-of-life tires to recover their valuable raw material and energy content. Murfitts Industries has been working with ETIA for a number of years and the proposed joint venture will build on that strong relationship. ETIA is a French engineering group and part of Vow ASA, an international technology company listed in Norway.

The World Future Energy Summit is the leading international event accelerating sustainability and the global transition to clean energy. Exhibition, technology showcase, investment incubator and business forum all rolled into one event, the summit convenes leaders, innovators and global thinkers to share ideas that are creating the blueprints for a sustainable future. Join EcoWASTE -WORLD FUTURE ENERGY SUMMIT 2023 to meet Fornnax Technology – one of the World's Leading Manufacturer of Shredding and Recycling Equipments with headquarters in India. Visit the company’s Stall for the discussion on requirement of TYRE SHREDDERS & GRANULATORS.

The Continental Carbon Company (CCC) – a leader in the development and manufacture of furnace-grade carbon blacks for the tire and rubber industry – will shut down its Phenix City Carbon Black plant on December 31st following years of failing to make necessary improvements to the facility and being hit by a multimillion dollar judgement verdict. The company was under a federal consent decree to make mandatory improvements to the facility and it is currently operating under a permit from ADEM.

In December 2022, the Government of Ontario filed amendments to the Tires Regulation under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016. Tire and Rubber Association of Canada welcomes these amendments that will bring great benefit to Ontarians through the reduction of red tape for business and industry, creating a more efficient tire recycling system. The new regulatory amendments refine requirements for tire recycling promotion and education, supply data reporting, and management performance audits for the industry. Other changes include updating the producer responsibility hierarchy to require more businesses participate in tire recycling, expanding on-demand used tire collection services across the province, increasing the range of resource recovery activities so more used tires can be recycled, and more. The list of all the amendments can be found here, and the updated Tires Regulation here.

Episode 41 of the Tyre Recycling Podcast run by Ewan Scott – chief editor of Tyre and Rubber Recycling magazine – features the President of Mars Mineral Clayton Woodward and the Business Development Consultant for the Craig Vaughan. After the recent announcement of their contract win with Contec in Poland, it was a great time to catch up with the company on their latest developments and their attendance to the rCB conference.

Rubber Modified Asphalt (RMA) made from recycled tire rubber powder, a product of Lehigh Technologies, a Michelin North America subsidiary, is now being utilized to resurface a 6.3-mile section of the Lawrenceville Highway in Georgia, United States. Currently, there are two different methods for modifying liquid bitumen for road resurfacing: the first uses synthetic polymers derived from oil, and the second is RMA. The company's proprietary component Rheopave and micronized MicroDyne rubber powder are used to create RMA, which is marketed as a high-performance material.