Metso and Pyreco plan rubber pyrolysis venture

Archiv – A UK company will provide a ’closed loop’ pyrolysis process as an environmental option to existing disposal methods, by turning tyres back into valuable raw materials, energy and new products. PYReco has signed an agreement with Metso Minerals, one of the world’s leading specialist mineral processing engineers and part of Finnish firm Metso, to build and operate a continuous flow pyrolysis plant by the end of 2010.United Kingdom | A UK company will provide a ’closed loop’ pyrolysis process as an environmental option to existing disposal methods, by turning tyres back into valuable raw materials, energy and new products. PYReco has signed an agreement with Metso Minerals, one of the world’s leading specialist mineral processing engineers and part of Finnish firm Metso, to build and operate a continuous flow pyrolysis plant by the end of 2010.
The development, which is currently at the planning stage, will turn used tyres back into material suitable for the manufacture of new tyres. It has been earmarked for the Tees Valley’s South Tees Eco Park (STEP) and is expected to recycle 60,000 tonnes ‘€’ the equivalent of 7.5 million tyres a year. The plant will also be able to process other rubber materials from motor manufacture, including belts and hoses, windscreen surrounds, wipers, floor mats and mud flaps.
According to PYReco and Metso Minerals, this represents the culmination of a 10-year research and development programme by Metso’s Danville, Pennsylvania pyro processing pilot plant facility in the United States and will result in a fully WID compliant plant, capable of processing and recycling 60,000 tonnes per year.
’We need to change our perceptions of pyrolysis. For too long the technology has been regarded as one that promised much but delivered little. Those days are behind us and PYReco’s plant will demonstrate just how effective pyrolysis will become at solving this and other waste related issues,’ says PYReco’s managing director, Noel Harasyn.
The firm believes the greatest savings will come from recycling carbon black and steel and says carbon black manufacture requires the burning of around 1.4 tonnes of oil for each tonne of carbon black. It adds that recycling Europe’s tyres would save the needless consumption of a further six million barrels of oil and avoid creating around 700,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
At a time when there are growing requirements for the motor industry to increase its use of recycled materials in accordance with the ELV Directive to 95% re-use and recovery by 2015, the availability of a ’closed loop recycling system’ that takes one of Europe’s most environmentally challenging waste streams and returns it in a usable form for further manufacture, has to be a major advantage.
’Over the last 25 years I have been looking to discover ways to reduce mankind’s footprint on our planet. It is therefore of particular personal satisfaction to be able to see such huge benefits being attached to this plant and for those who purchase its products,’ says PYReco’s chairman, Anthony Carter.