Any old tyres?
20 Jan 2003
Ajax, Ontario-based Environmental Waste International has made the first commercial sale of its 'Reverse Polymerisation Tyre Processing' system to an undisclosed private UK company.
EWI received a deposit of over $1 million against a purchase price in excess of $10 million for its EWI model TR3000 system. The system will be used in a new recycling facility to be built in the UK.
The design, building and installation of the plant will take approximately 18 months to complete during which time EWI will work closely with the purchaser to assist in obtaining all necessary permits and approvals prior to the installation and operation of the unit.
EWI believes that there is no technology other than reverse polymerisation that adequately addresses the scrap tyre issue in an environmentally clean manner. Alternative incineration fuel or tire-derived fuel (TDF) is currently the single largest use of scrap tyres because they have a similar heat value and combustion characteristics to coal.
However, according to EWI, TDF and coal have come under increasing attacks from environmental groups because of the air emissions of SOx, NOx, CO2 and other potential hazardous byproducts that can result from combustion of complex, heavy molecular weight hydrocarbons. In addition, incineration does not recycle and recover the materials in the tyres.
The patented EWI System employs microwave energy to break down and separate tyres into carbon black, oil, steel and hydrocarbon gases. EWI's system can hence generate financial returns through the sale of the end products.
The TR3000 is designed to process 3,000 tyres per day or about 1,000,000 tyres per year. Each 20 lb tyre is reduced to roughly 7.5 lbs of carbon black and 2.0 lbs of steel. The remainder of the tyre byproducts (oil and hydrocarbon gases) can be used as fuel for the production of electricity.
The carbon black produced by the system has many potential markets including the production of new rubber products. The steel can be sold for recycling.
