According to an article by the Austrian Kronen Zeitung, Christian Konvalina – a managing Partner of Carbon Recovery GmbH – has done innovative pioneering work at the Semperit site. Its end-of-life tire recycling facility produces valuable raw materials – among other things for new tires.

In Austria and Germany alone, 700,000 tons of old tires are thrown away every year. An eco-pioneer from Traiskirchen in the Baden district of Lower Austria is converting the raw material into gas, oil and recovered carbon black (rCB) in an environmentally friendly way at the symbolic site of the former Semperit factory.

Where once tens of thousands of tires from Semperit brand rolled off the stack, the resourceful environmentalist Christian Konvalina has now pitched his production facility.

“We have developed one of the first such recycling systems in Europe here. This allows us to dismantle worn-out tires 100 percent into their component parts and thus obtain valuable raw materials,” explains Christian Konvalina.

The mere fact that 1.5 billion used tires accumulate every year all over the world increases the potential to draw black gold from the worn-out ones with a vacuum low-temperature pyrolysis process.

“There have already been a number of attempts to develop such a solution in line with the circular economy. We've made the breakthrough," says Konvalina, who appropriately named his start-up "Carbon Recovery".

Gas, oil and carbon black are recovered from old tire granules. The latter can be used to produce valuable materials such as rubber parts, paints, toners and even irrigation pipes. Of course, there is also material for new tyres. Initially, around 8,000 tons are to be reprocessed. Konvalina, on the other hand, is still looking for investors to assist the project's expansion.

To read more about the topic, please proceed to Kronen Zeitung’s article.