News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

After a successful funding round of 15 million EUR in 2023, Contec S.A. takes the next step in its expansion plans by onboarding Wojciech Paruzel as Chief Operations Officer. Wojciech Paruzel is an electrical engineer and a Wrocław University of Science and Technology graduate with an MBA in Business Management. His career spans over 25 years, with experience in the construction, automotive, and technology industries. He was previously the COO of the J.S. Hamilton Group, where he improved operational efficiency with selected strategies across Central and Eastern Europe.

Orion S.A., a global specialty chemicals company, announced today it is investing in Alpha Carbone, a French tire recycling company. The partnership will enable Alpha Carbone to scale up and produce commercial volumes of tire pyrolysis oil and recovered carbon black. The cooperation also includes a long-term supply agreement with Orion as the exclusive customer for the tire pyrolysis oil produced by Alpha Carbone. The oil will be used by Orion to manufacture circular carbon black for tire and rubber goods customers.

Ecolomondo Corporation (Ecolomondo), a cleantech company that designs, builds, operates and commercializes Thermal Decomposition turnkey plants using its proprietary Thermal Decomposition Process (TDP) recycling technology, announced the appointment of Mr. Gary Economo as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Economo is an accomplished senior executive with demonstrated year-after-year success achieving revenue, profit and business-growth objectives within startup, turnaround and changing markets.

The Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) led one of Australia’s largest multi-council projects, incorporating rubber from end-of-life tires into bitumen to enhance asphalt durability, performance, and sustainability. Conducted by RMIT University, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, titled "Life Cycle Assessment and Potential Environmental Benefits of Crumb Rubber Asphalt using Field Data," revealed that recycled rubber extends pavement life, reduces raw material demand, and lowers environmental impacts.

Sailun Group's Director of the National Engineering Research Center for Rubber and Tire and Honorary Chairman, Yuan Zhongxue, announced the company’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) during the 2024 China Rubber Conference on March 27th. By 2030, Sailun aims to increase the sustainable materials used in tire production to 40% and to achieve 100% by 2050. Additionally, the goal is to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by 30% per tire by 2030 compared to 2022 levels.

The next BIR World Recycling Convention and Exhibition will take place from (26) 27 – 29 May 2024 in Copenhagen. The recycling market has been rocked by the European Commission’s decision to ban crumb rubber infill from use in synthetic turf surfaces at the end of an eight-year transition period. Therefore, the focus has shifted to alternative opportunities, with tyre pyrolysis attracting plenty of headlines, investment and imaginative thinking. Given the huge strides forward taken in this field over recent years, it will again form one of the main topics for debate at the upcoming BIR Tyres & Rubber Committee meeting to take place in Copenhagen on Tuesday May 28.

This years’ Tyre Recovery Association's (TRA) Briefing Day will be on Tuesday 24th September 2024 again at the Woodland Grange Hotel and Conference Centre, Leamington Spa. Focussing on the next big challenge facing the UK tyre industry, Mandatory Waste Tracking, the conference programme to be announced shortly will seek to inform and prepare for what is just around the corner. Waste Tracking will impact right across our sector but no more so than on all those who handle, collect, re-tread and process the nation’s 600 plus Kt of annual arisings.

End-of-life tire exports are a challenge for the entire European recycling sector, undermining domestic efforts. German tire alliance, Allianz Zukunft Reifen (AZuR), has drafted a resolution for the EU to call for more control over these exports and promote internal recycling. The resolution will be signed on June 4, 2024, at THE TIRE COLOGNE. Urgent regulations at the European level are needed to ensure sustainable handling of end-of-life tires in line with a circular economy.

Since 1985, Clemson University has hosted an annual Global Tire Industry Conference. Originally organized by School of Textiles professors, the conference has now grown to accommodate an international audience of tire industry professionals. The three-day conference this year kicked off at the Clemson University Center for Corporate Learning in downtown Greenville, featuring several distinguished speakers and presenters. Among them was Dean Wendy York, who spoke about the intersection of business, the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business, and the tire industry.