Zeppelin Group, Garching, near Munich, Germany, has started construction for its long-term collaborative partner Pyrolyx AG of the biggest tyre recycling plant ever built. Value of the contract is around $17.6 million and the plant will be located in Terre Haute, Indiana, USA. “We are delighted to be supporting Pyrolyx in tyre production with our expertise as a market leader in the plant engineering sector, as well as planning the entire plant and acting as general contractor,” commented Guido Veit, business unit manager, plastics & rubber plants, at Zeppelin.

 

The new Terre Haute facility is expected to produce some 12,900t of recovered carbon black (rCB) as well as pyrolysis oil and steel. It will use around four million old tyres every year, which would previously have been put into landfill or burned. Compared to traditional carbon black production, there will be a saving of approximately 2.5t of CO2 per ton of rCB. In Germany alone some 650,000t of old tyres accrue each year. These are put into landfill or burned in cement industry firing furnaces. As a result valuable raw materials are being wasted. Zeppelin, together with Pyrolyx, has developed a process by which the main component – carbon black – can be recovered. This uses pyrolysis to decompose shredded tyres down to raw materials and high-value carbon black is created, allowing the rCB to be used for production of new tyres. The gas released by the process can be used in gas engines, supplying most of the energy needed for the process itself. The oil can be purified and recycled using various other methods. Valuable steel is also recovered from the tyres. Pyrolyx and Zeppelin have been working together for almost nine years. www.zeppelin.com, www.pyrolyx.com  

 

 

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new tyre recycling plant took place on 22nd August