Swedish technology company Enviro has spent more than three decades developing pyrolysis for end-of-life tyres. CEO Fredrik Emilson says tyres became the most promising feedstock because they contain valuable carbon black, oil and steel that are already used by the tyre, rubber, chemical and oil industries.
Enviro heats shredded tyre material in an oxygen-poor reactor and carefully controls each batch to recover high-grade outputs. The company says a typical tyre can yield roughly 50% tyre pyrolysis oil, 30% recovered carbon black, 15% steel and 5% gas. That gas can provide energy for the process itself, while the carbon black and oil can return to industrial supply chains.
Demand is being driven by tyre manufacturers’ circular-material targets. Enviro is contributing technology to the first full-scale Infiniteria facility in Uddevalla, Sweden, with customers including Michelin, Preem, Nokian Tyres and H&R Group. The company ultimately wants to support one million tonnes of annual recycling capacity in Europe, but Emilson identifies capital, construction time and a successful reference plant as the main obstacles to rapid scale-up.
Emilson argues that the business case does not have to depend on subsidy because recovered materials have established buyers and economic value. Policy can still accelerate adoption through producer responsibility, traceability and measures that favour closed material loops over disposal or simple energy recovery. The broader proposition is that high recovery rates can turn a difficult waste stream into secondary raw materials while reducing demand for virgin fossil inputs.
Source: Waste Management World
