Sustainable Development Goals
Organizations Involved:
Black Cat Carbon Engineering, CRR, CECEP
Services:
Plant Design & Engineering, Due Diligence, Supply Chain Management, Carbon Management, Packaged Solutions
The Challenge:
China is the world's largest industrial manufacturer and the world's biggest polluter of the environment. It has committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2060, an ambitious goal matched by enormous investments in reshaping the nation’s energy system. Its growth since joining the World Trade Organization is astonishing, as is the waste it produces.
According to statistics, in 2019, China generated about 330 million waste tires, equivalent to more than 10 million tons of weight. The amount of waste tires generated by scrapping every year still grows from 6% to 8%.
Led by the circular economy policy, in recent years, China’s comprehensive utilization of scrap tires is an industry that has developed rapidly. The recycling rate of waste tires has increased year by year. In 2019, approximately 1,500 enterprises utilized scrap tires, which accounted for the recycling of nearly 200 million waste tires (60% recycling rate). Among them, the volume of tire retreading is about 5 million casings that have been achieved, the production of recycled rubber is about 3 million tons, the production of rubber powder is about 1 million tons, and the volume of thermal cracking treatment using pyrolysis has now increased to approximately 1 million tons.
Most scrap tires were recycled to produce rubber and rubber powders, accounting for more than 50% of the total annual recycled volume. Thermal cracking using pyrolysis technologies has accounted for a very low percentage of recycling due to the pyrolysis ban in China, and tire retreading accounted for approximately 10%.
Tire retreading is the preferred way to recycle tires and is considered the best reuse practice. Retreading saves 75% of the raw material used in scrap tire recycling and approximately 50% of the energy of making a new tire. A retreaded tire offers significant savings to the consumer of approximately 50%, along with mileage expectations equivalent to a new tire.
Superior performance with cost-effectiveness: Why is China’s tire retreading rate so low? At present, the lack of mandatory retreading standards for domestic tires, the existence of heavy vehicles, “a drive to waste” situation, and tire wear to the end of the considered life of tires make the replacement of the tire casing/carcass to lower quality which cannot meet the retreading requirements.
On the other hand, people’s concept of tire retreading also needs to be changed. The use of retreaded tires in passenger cars in China is very low. Industry analysis tells us that many Chinese passenger car owners still have doubts about the quality of retreaded tires, and most choose to repair or replace the tires after damage, which also leads to waste tires not being reasonably reused.
The Solution:
A strategic new industry is developing in China despite the lack of well-organized waste collection infrastructure, and industry stakeholders are very optimistic about the market prospects of the comprehensive utilization of waste tires as a resource in the circular economy. In fact, along with the increasing national environmental protection policies and stringent industry regulations, waste tires are now being viewed as “black gold.”
As the tire recycling industry adopts a circular economy, tire pyrolysis recycling plants are now being seriously considered nationwide. The KleanTeam has been actively working for over a decade in China to develop strategic partnerships with both feedstock partners and end-users for pyrolysis-based products, including building relationships with engineering firms to deploy technology across China.
As part of this effort and in partnership with Black Cat Carbon Engineering (BCCE), the KleanTeam has developed an innovative new approach to enhance further the value of Recovered Carbon Black (rCB). In 2021, the KleanTeam had a scientific breakthrough that now enables recovered carbon black to be converted through an additional add-on process to produce high-purity graphite that can be used in battery applications for electric mobility. The results of this research in battery design also enable 100% economic circularity, as spent batteries can now be fully recycled into new batteries by design. This game-changing approach increases the value of rCB from US $1,500 per metric ton to US $7,000 per metric ton in basic battery applications. It is estimated that new capacitor-based battery applications that use Klean's Recovered Carbon Graphite (rCG) can be used in applications where prices are estimated to be US $20,000 per metric ton. Not only is this a complete game-changer in the battery and tire recycling sectors, but this application also opens the door for economic circularity in its purest form.
If China's annual production of ten million tons of scrap tires is utilized in the standardized pyrolysis carbonization and graphite enhancement process, the annual output value is estimated to create a multi-billion dollar industrial value chain. This new project has feedstock, offtake, a fully permitted site, and is co-located with a significant Carbon Black Manufacturer currently under construction. Feasibility study reviews are underway for integration with a Klean Industries tire pyrolysis plant to produce Recovered Fuel Oil (rFO) used to produce Bio-based Virgin Carbon Black and Recovered Carbon Black (rCB) combined with Recovered Carbon Graphite (rCG).
The Outcome:
The result is the preservation of finite resources through the production of the following sustainable commodities (approximate volume):
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