The National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) Tyre Industry Conference has developed a reputation for assembling top-flight speakers to address the key issues of the day. The 2022 event was no different. Topics included tyre distributors’ role in highway safety as positive influencers, part worns and market surveillance as well as tyre recovery.
Wastefront and Newcastle University have formed a partnership to enhance the recycling firm’s recovered carbon black (rCB). The university is a globally recognised leader in sustainability research, and will help the cutting-edge tyre recycling company complete an 18-month study to develop innovative industrial solutions for Wastefront’s first tyre recycling plant in Sunderland. The partners state that they want the North of England to be at the forefront of progressing circularity across Europe.
The Tyre Recovery Association has revealed one simple factor behind the increased expense of collection and recycling end of life car tyres; they are getting heavier. New analysis by Astutus Research reveals that the average weight of a car tyre is now seven per cent more that it was just five years ago. Several factors have recently combined to push up the cost of waste tyre collection.
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.
The Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) is supporting a West Mercia Police anti tyre fly-tipping initiative. The campaign, which involves retailers and others handling waste tyres, offers special marker pens to identify the origin of tyre. TRA-branded handouts and posters promoting the campaign will also be available.
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.
The tyre fire started in the early hours of Monday morning in Bradford continued to cause disruption in the local area as thirteen schools were forced to remain closed on Tuesday. Trains remained unable to access the city’s Interchange and thick smoke reached as far away as neighbouring city Leeds, as the severe effects of the fire continued into a second day despite its containment by fire crews. A previous occupant of the site, karting charity OnTrack, confirmed to the Telegraph & Argos that it had removed “everything” it owned when it left Spring Mill Street in mid-2019. Considering the Environment Agency (EA) was probing potentially illegal activity at the site in July 2020, evidence is building that the waste tyres fuelling the blaze were stored improperly. Tyres & Accessories asked Peter Taylor, the secretary general of the Tyre Recovery Association, who warned of the dangers of a rise in non-compliant stockpiling earlier in the year, whether the incident shows that changes are needed in the way regulations governing waste tyre storage are enforced.
Engineering group Andritz has opened a new 3,600m2 test and research centre for the recycling industry in St. Michael, Upper Styria, Austria. The group, which supplies plant machinery for recovering energy and materials from tyres and auto parts among other waste streams, is to expand its research and development activities with the new facility. It will collaborate closely with the University of Leoben at the Andritz Recycling Technology Center (ART-Center), though the ART-Center is available to customers and researchers from around the world. The facility is equipped with innovative shredder technology from the company’s ADuro product line, used for primary and secondary shredding as well as fine granulation and dismantling of composite materials. This enables customers to conduct recycling tests under real plant conditions with industrial-scale equipment.
2G BioPOWER, the UK market representative of Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro), has been granted UK state funding to investigate the possibilities for the “large-scale introduction” of its end-of-life tyre recovery technology into the country. The study’s objectives include investigating the recovery of oil and carbon black from domestic end-of-life tyres. The news follows growing interest in the UK’s ELT processing operations in 2020, particularly driven by advanced pyrolysis processes. Tyrepress discusses more on the UK tyre recovery in Session 4 of the virtual Tyre Industry Conference here. The equivalent of 2.5 million Swedish krona (approximately £220,000) has been granted for the study.
The “worst fears” of the Tyre Recovery Association have been confirmed by Environment Agency data confirming a rise in levels of non-compliance by many end-of-life tyre (ELT) claiming ‘T8 exemptions’ for their businesses. EA inspections conducted in the first eight months of 2020 showed almost 50 per cent of sites visited failed to meet legal requirements. This is considerably worse than comparative data from 2019. Inspections of almost sixty sites carried out by the EA across England last year revealed over one-third to be legally non-compliant. prices typically charged by recyclers to accept end of life tyres from collectors have almost doubled since the start of the year.
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.
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 Tyre Recovery Association has urged tyre retailers, vehicle dismantlers, and others who need to dispose of waste tyres to beware unrealistically low rates. Reprocessing costs are soaring, as Tyrepress previously reported, and measures by Asian authorities, especially in India, are countering the trade imbalance that has artificially lowered the cost of exporting waste tyres to the continent. Tyre Recovery Association secretary general Peter Taylor explains that rates hit historic lows over the past year or two due to often questionable treatment processes in the region.
Tighter waste recovery practices in India will drive “a big increase in recovery costs across Europe and beyond”, according to industry body the Tyre Recovery Association (TRA). Together with similar moves in some other SE Asian countries, the TRA warns vehicle dismantlers and tyre retailers that disposal costs could “as much as double” in the coming weeks and months.
Peter Taylor OBE, secretary general of the Tyre Recovery Association (TRA), has been elected vice president of the European Tyre Recycling Association (ETRA) nine-member board. The board, comprised of nine members, oversees the formation and execution of ETRA’s strategic priorities and focus areas. Taylor is the only UK representative on the board.
NTDA
Wastefront
Network Rail Air Ops team
Andritz
Enviro
Peter H; Pixabay
BASF