Later this year, Perth-based company Tytec Recycling plans to launch technology it describes as the world’s first environmentally friendly off the road (OTR) tyre recycling process.
According to Tytec, worn OTR tyres are currently buried under mining dumps or stacked in Environment Protection Authority-approved areas around mine sites.
It was said that up to six steps are usually required to recycle OTR tyres. Recycled “crumb rubber” from the tyre can be used in athletic surfaces, playgrounds and equestrian footings but an additional process is required to extract oil and carbon, making the recycling process time-consuming, energy intensive and costly.
“There are plenty of ways to break down tyres but none of them are effective for OTR tyres,” Tytec chairman Brett Fennell stated.
Through the use of award-winning destructive distillation technology developed by Melbourne’s Green Distillation Technologies Corporation (GDTC), Fennell said OTR tyres could be converted into saleable commodities of carbon, diesel oil and high quality steel in a single step.
“We’re using continuous heating technology that’s incredibly energy efficient and results in extremely low emissions,” he explained. “Our reactors operate at a much lower temperature and pressure, providing the added advantage of being safer for system operators and reducing the wear and tear on the plant.”
Fennell said Tytec had been working on ways to efficiently recycle OTR tyres for the past nine years and that the new technology was set to launch mid-year.
“We’re currently on track to begin OTR recycling in June 2016 and will open our purpose-built recycling centre in Perth in January 2017, then Queensland soon after,” he stated.
Tytec Recycling is part of Tytec Group, which has been providing OTR tyre logistics, storage, retreading, repairs and tyre solutions throughout Australia for 15 years. Tytec holds an exclusive global technology licence for the destructive distillation process for OTR and agricultural tyres.
GDTC, the green technology company that is collaborating with Tytec, received a 2015 Edison Award in the Resource Management or Renewable Resources category for its proprietary destructive distillation technology.
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