Tire Derived Oil

Bridgestone has moved tire derived oil (TDO) and recovered carbon black (rCB) out of the laboratory and into production, confirming that the world’s largest tire makers now treat pyrolysis as supply chain infrastructure, not waste disposal.

The company began producing TDO and rCB through precise pyrolysis of end-of-life tires using test units at the Bridgestone Innovation Park in Kodaira City, Tokyo. Precise pyrolysis heats tires in an oxygen free environment under tightly controlled temperature and residence time, so the oil and carbon fractions come off at a quality worth refining rather than burning.

From Test Unit to Demonstration Plant

Bridgestone is advancing the programme with ENEOS Corporation under Japan’s NEDO Green Innovation Fund. ENEOS refines the recovered oil into tire derived recycled oil and onward into butadiene and other chemicals that return to synthetic rubber manufacturing.

The next step is a pilot demonstration plant at the Seki Plant in Gifu Prefecture, sized at roughly 7,500 tonnes of end-of-life tires per year and due to start up in 2027. Bridgestone has also joined Tokai Carbon and Japanese universities to upgrade rCB into eco Carbon Black with reinforcement properties equivalent to virgin carbon black, echoing the closed loop ambition behind Klean’s tire pyrolysis work in Japan.

Why Shredding Quality Decides Pyrolysis Economics

Precimeca, the French shredder manufacturer, makes the unglamorous point that every pyrolysis line lives or dies on feedstock preparation. Primary and secondary shredding deliver calibrated, cleanly cut chips with the steel largely liberated, permitting continuous feeding, stable reactor conditions and consistent char quality. An inconsistent chip becomes off specification oil and recovered carbon black that no tire maker will buy.

What This Signals to the Market

When a producer of Bridgestone’s scale commits capital to precise pyrolysis, it validates the whole value chain behind it: sizing equipment, continuous reactors, oil upgrading and rCB milling to tire grade specification. The constraint is no longer demand. It is proven, bankable process technology that hits tire grade output at commercial scale, every day.

Learn More:

• Feasibility Studies for Tire Pyrolysis and rCB Projects
• Sustainable Recovered Carbon Black Production
• Commercial Tire Pyrolysis Project in Australia
• Upgrading Tire Pyrolysis Oil into Marine Fuel

Turn Tire Derived Oil and rCB into a Bankable Asset

Bridgestone’s 7,500 tonne per year demonstration plant shows where the tire industry is heading. Klean Industries supplies the technology that gets you there without the demonstration risk, delivered turnkey through KBR as a performance guaranteed, fully bankable package.

Our references are commercial, not pilot: an operating commercial scale rCB plant in Poland, plus tire pyrolysis and oil upgrading projects across Asia and Australia. License the technology yourself, or have it built turnkey with throughput, yield and quality underwritten.

Planning a TDO or rCB project — license it or have it built turnkey?

Contact Klean Industries about tire derived oil and rCB » GO.