Tire Recycling - Technology, Innovations, News

There are a lot of tire recycling processes that can be used to recycle waste tires. Tires can be recycled into rubber and steel wires that can be reused or the tires can be recycled using Tire pyrolysis and used as fuel.

Want more information on tire recycling machinery for sale? Feel free to contact us.

Steel wire removing

Tires have steel wires int them to help with resistance. The steel wires need to be removed before the tires can be recycled. The steel wires can be reused for new steel goods and the rubber moves on to the next step in the recycling process.

Whole tire processing

After removing the wires, the rubber tires need to be reduced in size. There are two ways to reduce the size of the tires:

1. Mechanical – A shredder is used to reduce the rubber into smaller pieces, the size of the pieces can be regulated using a granulator.
2. Cryogenic – The tires are frozen with liquid nitrogen. The frozen tires are then smashed to smaller pieces with a hammer mill. All left over steel pieces can be removed with a strong magnet and other materials can be removed with an air classifier.

At this point in the process all of the rubber is screened and all steel and other fibers that affect the usability of the rubber are removed. During the screening process the rubber is also sorted by the size of the particle and any pieces that are too big are removed.

Cleaning

At this stage, the screened rubber is cleaned using water or other cleaning substances. The rubber can now be used as raw material. Examples of uses of the rubber are in rubber shoes and playground turfs.

Pyrolysis is a recycling method whereby whole or shredded tires are heated in an oxygen-free reactor. The rubber gets softened and the polymers start breaking down into smaller molecules. These molecules then gasify and leave the reactor.

The gasses can be either burned directly to generate power or condensed into a fluid that can be used as fuel. Not all molecules can be condensed but these smaller molecules can be used as a fuel. Not all parts of the tire can be used for fuel, after the pyrolysis process about 40% (by weight) of the tires can be removed as ashes.

For more information, please visit tire recycling equipment.

Each year, over 1 billion scrap tires are produced globally. Without expanded recycling options, many tires end up in large stockpiles, where they can become breeding grounds for insects and rodents that carry harmful diseases. 

That’s why tire manufacturers are focused on increasing recycling options for scrap tires as part of reducing their environmental footprint. Bridgestone–the second largest tire company in the world–is at the forefront of this by developing new, more efficient technology for recycling tires. The company plans to invest $134 million into research and development of a new chemical recycling process that will break down tires to their molecular level so that key materials, like isoprene (the natural substance from rubber tree sap), can be recovered and re-used.

In the United States alone, over 4 million tons of scrap tire waste is generated each year. Bridgestone estimates that their technology will allow the company to recycle about 100,000 tons of tires a year, creating a secondary life for a significant amount of tires produced annually. 

Separately, Tokyo-based materials manufacturer Zeonis is working with Japanese tire maker Yokohama Rubber to develop technology to recover raw materials from disposed tires. Presently, only 60% of butadiene, a synthetic material used in the production of tires, can be recovered. Zeon and Yokohama Rubber have plans to increase the recovery rate to 80%, enabling greater recycling of tires. 

Advancements from tire manufacturers like Bridgestone and Yokohama Rubber are promising indicators that using recycled tires to achieve a truly circular economy is closer than we think.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit tyre recycle machine.