Pyrum Innovations intends to build up to ten pyrolysis plants for recycling end-of-life tyres in the EU by 2030 together with tank terminal operator Unitank Betriebs- und Verwaltungs. The two firms agreed on this in a MoU signed in September. The first plant will be built in Germany, with its exact location finalised by the end of this year and commercial operation probably commencing late 2025.
Scandinavian Enviro Systems is in the midst of an expansive phase, and as part of the accompanying enlargement of its finance department has appointed Staffan Kullberg its new chief financial officer. Urban Folcker, whom Kullberg succeeds in this role, will assume responsibility for expanding the company’s capacity in business control and for developing processes in the finance area required to support expansion.
Discarded tyres will soon find a new home within the latest Mercedes-Benz models. Pyrum Innovations AG, which produces pyrolysis oil from end-of-life tyres (ELT), is supplying oil to its cooperation partner BASF SE, which in turn is combining the oil with biomethane as a raw material in the production of virgin plastics for vehicle components. Door handles will be the first products to have their fossil raw materials replaced by biomethane and pyrolysis oil from ELT. These will appear on Mercedes-Benz EQE and S-Class models later in 2022.
Last Friday, CTS Tyre Recycling broke ground on the first-ever tyre recycling facility in Western Australia. Construction work will begin in the coming weeks, and when the AU$7 million (£4.1 million) plant enters service, it will have a capacity to process around 30,000 tonnes of end-of-life tyres a year with the possibility of doubling this at a later date. The facility’s aim is to help Western Australia manage the impact of Australia’s recently-introduced ban on waste tyre exports.
Engineers from Australia’s RMIT University have managed to replace 100 per cent of conventional aggregates in concrete – such as gravel and crushed rock – with rubber from discarded tyres to create a product that meets building codes. The team behind the project says that in addition to contributing to the circular economy, the new greener and lighter concrete also promises to reduce manufacturing and transportation costs significantly.
Last November, US-based sustainable materials firm Bolder Industries announced that it had entered into a partnership with major recycler Liberty Tire Recycling. The two companies have now completed a formal agreement outlining their North American partnership.
At its recent Annual General Meeting, the first held since the company’s IPO in Oslo and its secondary listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Pyrum Innovations AG shared details of the special purpose vehicles (SPV) that it intends to establish with joint venture partners. It has already announced one of these, a 20,000-tonne pyrolysis plant in Germany, but a further six SPV projects are on the cards – including a facility in the UK.
Warren Steele as joined Carlton Forest Renewables, home of the UK’s first continuous pyrolysis plant for end-of-life tyres, as business development director. In this role he will work closely with the Carlton Forest team as the technology begins to be rolled out in joint venture agreements within the UK and beyond.
German pyrolysis end-of-life tyre recycling specialist Pyrum Innovations AG has established a joint venture to build and operate a pyrolysis plant in Straubing, Bavaria. Together with a trio of partners, it will establish Revalit GmbH, a recycling plant with a capacity to process 20,000 tonnes of tyres per annum. Pyrum holds a 25 per cent share in the joint venture, as do Munich-based firms MCapital GmbH, Textor GmbH and Auer Holding GmbH. The plan is to have the facility operational by 2024.
Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro) has received approval as an intermediate for its pyrolysis oil according to EU chemicals regulation REACH, and will thus now execute the previously announced order for pyrolysis oil to the subsidiary of a leading US oil firm. The company also reports it has gained an environmental permit for the planned recycling plant in Uddevalla, Sweden.
At its annual general meeting on 29 June, Swiss firm Tyre Recycling Solutions (TRS) appointed Matteo Marchisio to its Board of Directors. Marchisio is director of the Synthetic Rubber business unit at Synthos, the chemical company that took a minority stake in TRS following its acquisition of Trinseo’s synthetic rubber business late last year.
An inaugural assessment by EcoVadis has resulted in a Silver Medal for Pyrum Innovations AG. The sustainability ratings provider awarded Pyrum, which has patented a pyrolysis technology for the sustainable recycling of end-of-life tyres, an overall score of 59 points. This places Pyrum amongst the worldwide top 25 per cent of all companies in its industry assessed by EcoVadis.
Through a new partnership agreement with the Siemens technology group, Pyrum Innovations AG anticipates the further promotion, optimisation and scaling of its pyrolysis plants for processing end-of-life tyres (ELT). Pyrum will utilise technology from Siemens’ digitalisation and automation portfolios, with Siemens supporting Pyrum and its customers in the selection of optimal process automation, process analytics, drive and digitalisation technologies, amongst other things.
New Zealand’s first nationwide regulated product stewardship scheme for recycling used tyres is expected to start operating in 2023. The Tyrewise scheme will address the estimated 6.5 million end-of-life tyres (ELTs) generated within the country each year.
Under an expanded cooperation, end-of-life tyre (ELT) recycling equipment manufacturer Eldan Recycling A/S and pyrolysis technology developer Pyrum Innovations AG will include each other’s products in their complete recycling solutions. The Danish and German firms say they’ll distribute these solutions “actively”.
