Environment

An effective, environmentally-friendly way to break down old tires

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A good breakdown ... author of the thesis on using a technique called pyrolisis to decompose tires, Maria Felisa Laresgoiti Perez
A good breakdown ... author of the thesis on using a technique called pyrolisis to decompose tires, Maria Felisa Laresgoiti Perez
Some 2 million tires were dumped off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the 1970s, in an effort to create an artificial reef. Three decades later, military divers have begun removing them

The world practically runs on pneumatic tires, but getting rid of them is an environmental nightmare. Apart from playground flooring material, running tracks for athletes and horses and unfashionable footwear, disposing of or reusing tires has proven to be extremely problematic (remember the Osborne artificial reef off Ft Lauderdale, Florida, made from old tires? It became an environmental disaster and had to be removed by the US Military). Now a scientist at the University of Basque Country, Spain, has used the process of pyrolisis to decompose and reuse the left-over components of pneumatic tires.

Because tires have been designed to perform in the toughest conditions, they also resist the elements, which means when the use-by date has expired, a very large percentage of the tire remains intact (albeit useless). Hence, tire’s damaging short- and long-term environmental impacts.

As her PhD thesis, chemist Ms María Felisa Laresgoiti, undertook to study a process of recovering part of the energy and material costs used to create a tire, as well as a method of decomposing the tire. She used pyrolisis to achieve both aims.

Pyrolisis is a sophisticated method of heating in the absence of oxygen. Ms Laresgoiti used a 3.5 liter fixed bed reactor (vertical tubes packed with particles that accelerate the process of reaction) and employed a nitrogen sweep to guarantee the absence of oxygen.

In her study she concluded that at above 500°C and with 30 minutes of reaction time, the organic material within the tire decomposed. The entire decomposition could be separated into liquids (40 percent) and gases (16 percent) – which could be reused as fuels or raw materials – and 44 percent as solid material, such as metals and soot, which remained basically unaltered.

The pyrolisis-derived liquids are similar to forms of petroleum and could be used as an alternative to fossil fuels, such as fuel oil. There is also an opportunity that they could be used as central heating oil and even as part of the fuel source for commercial diesel motors in vehicles (in a mixture to comply with legal specifications).

They could also be the source of chemical compounds used to create plastic or a biodegradable solvent, while the hydrocarbon gases extracted via the pyrolisis could be used as a separate energy source.

The remaining 44 percent solid inorganic material is basically unaltered from its original state, and could be recycled as soot and steel. Ms Laresgoiti believes soot could be used to reinforce new tires or used as pigment for inks.

Ms Laresgoiti presented her PhD thesis, titled Chemical recycling of pneumatic tyres through pyrolisis, at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).

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4 comments
donwine
It sounds like the process requires a lot of energy. Why not use the extracted fuel as the total source of energy to brake down the tire?
Jeff Umbach
This is still a lab bench scale test. In an industrial-sized process they would very likely use the hydrocarbon gas to supplement the heating fuel source.
Slav Ilyin
There have recently been a few companies beginning to develop this technology. John Bordynuik Inc. (Ticker: JBII) is by far the best project underway developing a pyrolysis based solution to the worlds plastic problem. I believe they are almost set for commercial production. Great solutions being developed for an increasingly growing problem.
Plasma Junkie
Good idea but not new. Wonder what her committee thought about her defense.