Carlton Forest Group has appointed Scott Robson managing director of its Renewables division. Robson has served as the group’s financial director since the second half of 2020, and in his new role, he will now guide the firm’s pyrolysis plant through final installation and commissioning ahead of its completion in the late summer.
Norwegian waste tyre recycling company Wastefront has appointed Vianney Valès as its new CEO, replacing founder Inge Berge, who moves to chief operating officer. Valès is a former top oil and gas executive in in companies such as Shell and Galp Energia. He was first introduced to Wastefront by its liquid offtaker Vitol in 2019, was initially engaged with the Norwegian company in his former position as CEO of Devaltec LLC, a project developer and solutions provider in new and sustainable energies. Valès will be responsible for de-risking the company’s first waste tyre plant project in Sunderland, due to begin construction in early 2022. Valès will relocate immediately to London from Houston, Texas. Wastefront added that Valès’ initial priorities will include the selection of an EPC partner, developing commercial agreements, and ensuring all outstanding permits are approved.
In addition to the flurry of research relating to tyre pyrolysis published at the end of 2020 and the start of this year, in February it emerged that another related study has been released. In his master’s thesis for Tampere University, Mikko Sirén explored the best technologies for turning scrap tyres into secondary raw material and value-added products. The research project started in May 2020 as an initiative of Black Donuts, the turn-key tyre industry consultants, who desired up-to-date research of the recycling of discarded tyres as part of their circular economy initiatives.
Versalis, the Eni-owned elastomer-maker, and AGR, a devulcanization specialist, have signed an agreement to develop products and applications of recycled rubber. According to the two companies, the aim of the November 2020 agreement is to pool their expertise to develop elastomer-based products made from granulated rubber from post-consumer products in order to meet the circular economy needs of manufacturers of tyres and other rubber products.
Recycled carbon black compnay Pyrolyx AG has cancelled the extraordinary general meeting it had scheduled for 15 January 2021, and has done so as the company has filed to open insolvency proceedings. The case (number 1507 IN 2125/20) was filed with the Munich District Court on 4 December 2020.
Mark Berry has joined the board of sustainable hydrogen company Powerhouse Energy Group as a non-executive director. A partner at Norton Rose Fulbright LLP. Berry specialises in financing energy, infrastructure and process engineering projects. He has particular expertise in the waste to energy (including materials recovery and fuel recovery from waste), transport and mining sectors.
The fourth session of the virtual Tyre Industry Conference centred on tyre recycling and the circular economy in the year of coronavirus. Joined by the Tyre Recovery Association’s secretary general Peter Taylor OBE and Mark Murfitt, the managing director of the UK’s largest tyre recycler, Murfitts Industries, our discussion focused on issues affecting collection and processing of end of life tyres in the UK, the impact of the pandemic, the damage caused by non-compliance, and future developments in tyre recycling. The UK’s tyre recycling sector witnessed a number of investments in 2020 from companies such as the newly formed Norwegian outfit Wastefront’s intention to build a pyrolysis facility in Sunderland and the UK’s Powerhouse Energy Group’s Cheshire DMG syngas plant. So noticeable was this trend that Tyrepress published its first ever Digital Feature based largely on the trend – a magazine-style online feature collecting the latest news from the segment in one place. The interest in this unglamorous but vital segment would perhaps represent a surprise to some, but several developments led to this flurry of activity.
Norwegian waste tyre recycling company, Wastefront AS has entered into an exclusive long-term project delivery partnership with Devaltec LLC. The partnership will commence with Wastefront’s first waste tyre recycling plant in Sunderland, due for completion in 2023. Wastefront had previously secured a 10-year offtake agreement with Devaltec’s liquid offtaker, Vitol for the production of liquid hydrocarbons and certain non-liquid products due to be produced at the Sunderland plant and future plant sites. Devaltec will now be the primary strategic partner to Wastefront, co-leading the development of all upcoming projects for the next five years. It is contracted to deliver production from multiple plants of minimum 1000 MTD.
Synthetic rubber and plastics manufacturer Trinseo has reached definitive agreements with Swiss sustainable tyre recycling specialist Tyre Recycling Solutions (TRS) on a commercial collaboration and an equity investment in TRS. The transaction is expected to close later this quarter, subject to ordinary closing conditions.
Waste rubber generated by tyre manufacturing could deliver increased energy savings and business opportunities according to IRR Waste 2 Energy. The company’s continuous pyrolysis technology, which is fully commissioned and in operation at its parent company Carlton Forest Group’s Worksop headquarters, has delivered “tangible results” in both “energy generation and the production of by-products such as pyrolysis oil and carbon char,” the company states. These materials can be refined further to produce high grade engine oil and recovered carbon black (RcB).
Norwegian waste tyre recycling company Wastefront has chosen Port of Sunderland as the location for its first plant. Construction will begin in 2021. The company says that on completion it will be “the greenest waste tyre recycling plant in the UK.” The plant will convert locally-sourced End-of-Life Tyre (ELT) waste into useful commodities, including liquid hydrocarbons and carbon black, which can then be reutilised in processes such as alternative fuel or ground rubber manufacturing. The construction of the plant is expected to generate around 100 jobs in the region and, once fully up and running in the second half of 2022, the plant will employ up to 30 people full time. It is estimated the investment will be around £25 million.
A new pyrolysis-based tyre recycling technology is to help achieve targets set out by the Government Environmental Plan, according to the Carlton Forest Group. Subsidiary Carlton Forest IRR Waste 2 Energy will exclusively supply its continuous pyrolysis technology to businesses, urban regeneration schemes and local authorities across the UK. Established in South Africa in 2006, IRR was acquired by the Carlton Forest Group in 2018.
Norwegian tyre recycling startup Wastefront, has appointed Maria Moræus Hanssen as its chairperson. Heading up Wastefront’s board, Hanssen brings international experience from top-level positions within oil, gas and energy companies such as Hydro, Equinor, Aker and Engie. She has served as a board member of multiple Scandinavian industry leading companies – including Det norske oljeselskap ASA, Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA, and Yara International – over the past twenty years, with current, active board member positions at Alfa Laval, Scatec Solar and Oslo Bygg. She was previously deputy CEO and COO at Europe’s leading oil and gas company, Wintershall DEA. Wastefront has also announced its first £25 million tyre recycling facility will be built in the UK.
Norwegian tyre recycling startup, Wastefront AS has confirmed that its first plant will be located in the UK. It plans to invest between £20-30 million on the recycling facility, with its construction resulting in employment for around 100. When fully up and running, Wastefront adds the plant will employ between 20 and 30 people full time. The company, founded in 2019 in Oslo, is now deciding where to locate its first site. The company tells Tyres & Accessories that its plant will be the first to combine conventional technology with Wastefront’s own proprietary technology, which will minimise the environmental impact typically associated with traditional tyre pyrolysis. It adds that this will “make the UK plant the ‘greenest’ of its kind.”
BlackDonuts
ManfredRichter; Pixabay
Powerhouse Energy Group
Shaun Flannery/shaunflanneryphotography.com
Carlton Forest Group
Christian Fredrik Wesenberg
Wastefront