News and feature articles relating to recycling, including collection, of end of life tyres.
On 3 July 2020 the UK government issued advice on the port-side storage of tyre shred via a time-limited Environment Agency Regulatory Position Statement (RPS 238). RPS 238 was updated on 15 September 2020 and lasts until 30 June 2021.
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).
The Russian SME Bank has lent 48.7 million rubles (£497,000; 541,582 euros; US$633,100) to Intech Eco LLC, a tyre pyrolysis plant based in the Novokuznetsk industrial park, at the start of September 2020. According to local news reports the loan is for the purpose of building a large tyre disposal facility. Financing will be provided for five years under a program of Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development (according to the Russian Government’s Decree No. 1764 dated 30 December 2018). The loan is said to be secured by a guarantee from Russian Small and Medium Business Corporation (RSMB Corporation), covering up to 50 per cent of the loan amount.
BASF SE has announced that it is investing 16 million euros into Pyrum Innovations AG, a technology company specialized in the pyrolysis of waste tyres, headquartered in Dillingen/Saar, Germany. With the investment, BASF will support the expansion of Pyrum’s pyrolysis plant in Dillingen and the further roll out of the technology. BASF’s Pyrum investment follows the company’s partnership with New Energy, a similar tyre-derived oil project based in Budapest, Hungary at the start of September 2020.
The UK is at risk of losing out to the rest of Europe when it comes to the automotive lithium ion battery recycling market, according to a new research report published this week by WMG at the University of Warwick and backed by the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and Faraday Battery Challenge at Innovate UK.
Two supplier businesses closely linked to the end-of-life tyre recovery chain in the UK have joined the Tyre Recovery Association. The new member companies are: Accent Wire based in Solihull, West Midlands and Bradford, Yorkshire; and Gateway Resources of Dubai, UAE.
The Tyre Collective – winners of the James Dyson Awards 2020 – have designed a device to capture tyre particulate at source. According to the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ “Air Quality: Brake, Tyre and Road Surface Wear” report, tyre-wear accounts for nearly half of road transport particulate emissions. Furthermore, a reported half a million tonnes of tyre particles are produced annually in Europe alone, from vehicles accelerating, braking and cornering. As we move towards electric vehicles in the future, exhaust emissions will reduce but tyre particles will continue. The Tyre Collective estimate that tyre emissions may even increase, as electric vehicles become heavier due to the added battery weight. For both reasons, this year’s UK national James Dyson Award winners attempt to address this issue.
Michelin is coordinating 7 industrial partners, 5 Research & Technological Organizations (RTOs) and an innovation cluster into a European consortium designing pioneering processes to produce new tyres from end-of-life tyres (ELTs). The project, called BlackCycle owing to its focus on developing a circular economy for tyres, is run across five countries.
BASF SE has signed an uptake supply agreement with New Energy, which specializes waste tyre pyrolysis and is headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. According to the agreement, New Energy will supply BASF with up to 4,000 metric tonnes of pyrolysis oil per year derived from waste tyres. In a pilot phase, the first volumes of the pyrolysis oil have already been used in BASF’s integrated chemical production site in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Scandinavian Enviro Systems AB is reporting a “dramatic increase in interest” the pyrolysis oil the company extracts from end-of-life tyres. According to the company, the oil has a high bio content due to the natural rubber in tyres and is therefore “of great interest to many players in the market because it could replace fossil-based alternatives”. This, in turn, is likely to help Enviro’s sales revenues. “Based on the market response and our own calculations, we judge that the oil recovered from end-of-life tyres could contribute to a strong increase of revenues from recycling plants that use our technology,” Thomas Sörensson, CEO of Enviro, explained.
Powerhouse Energy Group’s first hydrogen production from waste plastic (including end of life tyres) plant has received a boost, as the first phase of engineering work on its site at Cheshire’s Protos Energy Park was completed on time, despite the Coronavirus lockdown. Peel L&P completed the Engineering Definition stage of the contractors’ work for the DMG plant on schedule. The completion of detailed site definition drawings and procument packages for equipment and components will enable delivery contractors to price their contracts for constructing the plant and the associated on-site buildings.
Carlton Forest Group has appointed a new financial director as it enters the next phase of its growth strategy. Scott Robson has joined the waste to energy company, home to the UK’s only continuous tyre pyrolysis plant. Originally from Leeds, Robson has a global career in director level finance roles. “We extend a very warm welcome to Scott and look forward to working with him as our portfolio of business continue their exciting growth phrases and strategic diversification,” said Mark Pepper, CEO, Carlton Forest Group Holdings. “He joins our driven and dynamic senior team and we know that he will have a long and successful career with us.”
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.
Early in 2020 the UK government suggested a tentative plan to ban the export of all end of life tyres (ELTs). The timing was unfortunate, with the challenges of the rest of 2020 becoming increasingly apparent at the start of spring. However, with strict recycling, energy from waste, and environmental targets to meet over the next twenty years or so, many companies are pressing ahead in raising awareness and innovating within the broad recycling sector. ELTs represent a particularly important part of the new era in recycling introduced by the UK’s Environment Bill, not least because of new and incoming measures internal and external against used and end of life tyre exports, a popular, yet often damaging solution to the problem. Rory Hughes, technical director at IRR Waste 2 Energy, and a waste and recycling expert with more than 35 experience in the industry, told Tyrepress why adopting a more holistic approach to tyre recycling is the way forward.
UK technology company Powerhouse Energy Group has appointed Allan Vlah as a non-executive director with immediate effect. With twenty years’ experience in the investment industry, Vlah (43) is a director in Aviva Investors’ infrastructure group where he started and continues to lead Aviva Investors’ Energy from Waste equity strategy. Powerhouse commercialises hydrogen production from waste plastics, including end of life tyres.
Peter H; Pixabay
Shaun Flannery/shaunflanneryphotography.com
BASF
University of Warwick
The Tyre Collective
Michelin
BASF
Scandinavian Enviro Systems AB
Powerhouse Energy Group
Shaun Flannery
Shaun Flannery/shaunflanneryphotography.com
Powerhouse Energy Group