Wastefront on Track to Make Carbon Black and Biofuels From Nine Million Waste Tires a Year

In the Western world, most end-of-life tires are burned for energy, at best, but globally more are landfilled or shipped to developing countries where they commonly stockpile. All total about 30 million tons of waste tires are generated a year, reports World Business Council for Sustainable Development; and Norwegian-based rubber waste recycler Wastefront plans to tap into a piece of that.

Wastefront is building a plant in Sunderland, Northeast England, that will process 80,000 tons a year (nine million tires) at capacity. This equals the volume exported from the U.K. to often unknown destinations, says Vianney Vales, CEO of Wastefront. The recycler and processor is bracing for intensified need for end-of-life strategies as the electric vehicle (EV) market drives tire manufacturing higher, and as the U.K. and Europe enforce greenhouse gas emission (GGE)-reduction reporting.

Carbon black will be recovered, reintroduced into tires to strengthen them, and rubber will be converted to make biofuel or bioplastic. The core technology, pyrolysis, has no emissions, while the required heat generates some, though well within permit limits.

U.K.-based EV tire manufacturer ENSO is the first tire manufacturer to enter an agreement with Wastefront, and world crude oil product trader VITO is the offtaker on the biofuel side.

“We will be the first plant of this size outside of China to make carbon black and biofuels,” Vales says, calling the ability to scale and offer “complete circularity” (using all main tire parts) key to successful implementation.

 He explains the process: “We shred tires, separate metal from carbon black, and heat the rubber and carbon black, mixed. We use high temperature without oxygen to prevent combustion (pyrolysis). [With oxygen the material would burn and be destroyed.]”

The rubber becomes vapor, and ultimately liquid biofuel. The carbon black remains intact, is separated, and ground to fine powder.

“We learned a lot on the carbon black part of the process, especially. There are trade secrets to finishing the product – in how we treat the carbon black. The liquid biofuel must also be refined, and there’s intellectual property and trade secrets there too,” he says.

Wastefront tweaked an Asian company’s reactor to adapt to U.S., European, and U.K. markets, which was the hardest part and accomplished working with a company under NDA that uses the technology at a commercial plant in Asia.

Key to turning out good product is efficient heat transfer in the reactor to facilitate good separation of the rubber and carbon black.

“If you have reliability of the reactor and efficient separation you are good,” Vales says.

Wastefront is starting in the U.K. as the region is among the world’s largest waste tire exporters. It targeted the industrial location of Sunderland for its port, where it can tap into a strong, skilled workforce.

There were reasons for approaching VITO and ENSO too.

“VITO has scale; they trade seven million barrels a day of petroleum products. And they can blend our biofuel with their product, which makes logistics easier and is key to getting it to market. What we like about ENSO is they focus on tires of the future and bringing them to market fast,” Vales says.

He is currently working with ENSO to meet their specs and improve EV tire performance while incorporating carbon black. At the same time ENSO will have a recycling outlet for used tires.

The tire company works with EV carmakers and large EV fleets, including a partnership with the Mayor of London, Transport for London, parcel delivery firm DPD, and others to do trials. It will soon equip the London electric taxi with tires and plans to expand into California this year.

“Tire pollution is on the rise, in part driven by the rapidly expanding EV sector. EVs typically wear tires 20 to 50% faster due to their higher weight and torque, and need tire replacements more often, leading to more pollution and waste. Our partnership with Wastefront opens up more sustainable manufacturing solutions, enabling us to recycle end-of-life tires and reuse recovered carbon black in new sustainable EV tires,” says Gunnlaugur Erlendsson, ENSO CEO.

Accelerating demand for more sustainability will drive the market Wastefront is targeting, Vales figures.

Car manufacturers have to ensure components are recycled with the push for environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and a circular economy. And tires are the least recycled part.

Resulting tire waste, and what’s happening to it, is gaining more attention, particularly in Europe and the U.K.

“In the U.K. for instance, there is no traceability of exports to developing countries. There’s traceability at the beginning of the end-of-life journey, but not beyond. [Other] countries are starting to say that’s enough. But for now, they have huge graveyards of tires. Some with up to about 50 million of them, which we know just by sheer visualization in photos,” Vales says.

Europe has taxonomy, requiring some companies to identify their business’ contribution to GGE reductions, and the U.K. is expecting a similar system in Q2 this year. Beginning in 2023, companies with at least 500 employees must report their reductions in Europe; U.K. is following suit.

“Taxonomy is scaring people and tire manufacturers seem to be aligned with the policy. They will need to show tires are not getting landfilled or incinerated,” he says. He anticipates technologies like Wastefront’s will be part of the solution.

There are a few other companies working with carbon black, with the bigger players being Delta Energy, Bolder Industries, and Enviro Systems. They focus on developing technology and building plants while Wastefront is taking a commercially-ready system to scale, which Vales says is key to accelerating expansion— that and securing large volumes of tires and working with partners who want that scale.

Construction in Sunderland should begin this summer, with a slated 2024 launch. Vales says the company has plans for five more plants, including in the U.S., Northern Europe, and Asia.