TIRE TECHNOLOGY EXPO 2022
May 18-20th, 2022 – Hannover, GERMANY

Now in its 22nd year, Tire Technology Expo is Europe’s most important tire manufacturing technology exhibition and conference

With exhibits from many of the world’s most important suppliers to the tire manufacturing industry plus a major conference, workshop program and industry-leading awards dinner, Tire Technology Expo is a must-attend industry event.

Visitors, exhibitors and conference delegates will enjoy a networking opportunity that is unrivaled within the tire manufacturing sector.

BlackCycle consortium with ORION propose an abstract at the Tire Technology EXPO 2022

Carbon black from tire-derived pyrolysis oil – 19th May, 2022 at 4:35pm by Dr Hauke Westenberg 

Within the EU-funded innovation project BlackCycle (Horizon 2020 program, project number 869625), sustainable carbon blacks for the tire applications have been produced on a conventional carbon black furnace reactor by using oils derived from derived from an end-of-tires pyrolysis process. This represents a truly circular process. The carbon blacks obtained show very similar analytical and in-rubber properties compared with products produces with standard oil.

Recycling of end-of-life tyres via pyrolysis and catalytic vapour upgrading

Stylianos D. Stefanidis, Eleni Pachatouridou, Eleni Heracleous, Angelos A. Lappas*

Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece *angel@certh.gr

Keywords: Tyres, Recycling, Carbon black, Aromatics

Abstract

A large number of tyres from road vehicles are retired annually, entering the pool of end-of-life tyres (ELTs) that presents a large, untapped potential for material recovery. Tyres are complex composites made up of elastomers, fillers, reinforcement materials, chemicals and plasticisers, many of which are produced from non-renewable sources. While ELTs can be treated to be repurposed for various applications, today’s treatment processes are not circular and do not result in many raw materials that can be reused in new tyres. The aim of this study, which is part of the EU project BlackCycle, was to develop a technology for the recycling of ELTs into raw materials that can be used for the production of new tyres, effectively reducing the use of composites from non[1]renewable sources and drastically mitigating CO2 emissions associated with new tyre manufacturing. Towards this goal, pyrolysis of an ELT feed was carried out to obtain pyrolysis oil and recycled carbon black; pyrolysis oils with a high content in aromatics can be utilised for the production of carbon black, a major tyre component used as filler. Particular focus was placed on the coupling of pyrolysis with catalytic vapour upgrading in order to catalytically convert the tyre-derived compounds in the pyrolysis vapours to aromatics and maximise the aromaticity of the produced pyrolysis oils. The pyrolysis temperature was first optimized in a bench-scale fixed bed reactor to obtain a maximum pyrolysis oil yield of ~53 wt%. This was followed by a pre-screening of various acidic zeolites and low-cost mineral oxides with the aim to identify promising catalysts that produce highly aromatic pyrolysis oils. A significant increase in the aromaticity of pyrolysis oils was observed with USY and ZSM-5 zeolite-based catalysts, accompanied by only a moderate reduction of the pyrolysis oil yield to ~42 wt%. Modification of the catalysts with transition metals evidently promoted dehydrogenation reactions, which favoured the formation of di- and tri- aromatic compounds over monoaromatics, and resulted in pyrolysis oils with increased average MW that are more suitable for the production of carbon black. The results were verified by further testing of the most promising catalysts in a continuous medium-scale unit with cascading bubbling bed reactors, as well as in a continuous pilot-scale plant with a circulating fluidized bed reactor with continuous catalyst regeneration. The maximum aromatic content achieved in the pyrolysis oil in this work was ~87 wt% with a USY catalyst, while the maximum total aromatics yield achieved was ~38 wt%