News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

According to Hidde Smit – a consultant and analyst of Rubber Forecasts – natural rubber (NR) prices will be going up during the next two quarters of 2017 before commodity surplus weighs in on the market again. Price increase will occur due to severe winter season in Thailand as well as reduction in tapping activities. In his speech during the Tire Technology Expo in Hannover, Germany held this February, Mr. Smit pointed out that tapping intensities in rubber-producing countries went down predominantly due to decreased prices since 2013 (below USD 2.00) as well as severe floods in Thailand – the biggest natural rubber producing country – the beginning of the year.

TreadWright, a US-based company that renovates old tires in a sustainable manner producing a totally new rubber for vehicles, claims that their innovative product is cost-effective, durable, top-quality and environment-friendly. The company takes used tire casings and remolds new rubber onto the old casings– this procedure prevents accumulation of waste tires on landfills and finds use for thousands of discarded tires.

Oil makes up approximately 35-45% of pyrolysis output depending on process conditions. Recovered fuel oil consists of three fractions with the middle fraction prevailing and it cannot be considered a substitute for traditional fuels before purification and sometimes additional treatment. Width of application of tire-derived pyrolysis oil depends on regulations in particular countries where a project is carried out. In countries with strict environmental protection regulations pyrolysis oil may require additional treatment and refinement, which in turn will increase production costs and lower profit margins.

On the 6th of February, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) announced opening a committee which will develop standards for the recovered carbon black (rCB). The goal of the ASTM’s new committee D36 will be to establish and update standards in end-of-life tire (ELT) and scrap rubber decomposition, standards in material characteristics and sustainability. ASTM declared that the committee will be formed and governed by the members of its existing committee on carbon black (D24) who engaged in working with a vast portfolio of standards on recycled carbon black goods.

Despite all announcements about rising prices for new tires, French used tire collection and management company Aliapur exhibits stability and succeeds on the tire recycling arena. According to a statement of the company, “eco-contribution” will remain the same for all tire categories. Thus, the levy remains to be EUR 1.25 for all passenger car tires which add up to some two thirds of the total annual volume of collection. Due to this decision, the levy will remain untouched and will be maintained at the level of the last two years. In fact, this means a persistent decline in contributions for over ten years. Aliapur reckons that this fact reflects the degree of efficiency of how tire recycling in France is structured. Albeit, Aliapur is ready for further optimization: namely in some areas between collection in skips and manual collection, as well as alternative means to recycle end-of-life tires.

This January, ferrous scrap prices rose up again. Last two month before the new year the price had been going up and January follows the same trend – the price has been bouncing back from a steep and unexpected drop that affected ferrous scrap in September and October of the last year.American Metal Market (AMM) indicates in their price surveys and indices that the most popular ferrous scrap grades’ prices appreciated from some USD 35 to USD 40 per ton in the beginning of January. In November 2016, Midwest Index prices appreciated up to USD 25 per ton and in December 2016 they went up to USD 45 per ton. In the beginning of 2017, export price climbed up less vigorously, according to the survey by AMM. Grades of heavy melting steel (HMS) purchased by brokers from overseas and foreign mill buyers increased by less than USD 12 per ton on the West Coast and by some USD 18 per ton on the East Coast.

Industry officials in India told Reuters that natural rubber output is expected to increase 15 percent during 2017-2018. This is expected to be the highest price in almost 4 years. Also, higher prices make farmers commence using trees abandoned before. Notwithstanding, natural rubber price rally appears to be bad news for tire manufacturers as it cuts down profits. And to stay afloat, the businesses may pass those hits on to customers.

Recently, University of Nottingham and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) carried out a research aimed at improving rheometry of crumb rubber. Davide Lo Presti, Senior Scientist and International research Project manager at University of Nottingham reports results in his article “Improving rheometry of crumb rubber modified bitumen: a testing geometry tailored for simultaneous low-shear mixing and measurements”.

95% of Australia’s tire recycling and the bulk of crumb rubber production for sports fields, playgrounds and civil engineering are covered by ATRA’s members. Every year, Australia produces some 50 million used tires and almost half of them – 23 million – are available for recycling. Members of ATRA process some 20.5 million of that number, whereas the remainder is kept at stockpiles: baled and ready for shipment. In fact, bales cause biosecurity and environmental risks for receiving countries. OTR tires are also kept within the country. In contrast to any other type of ELT, mining tires are usually buried onsite. However, there are numerous opportunities for them to be reprocessed.