Tyre Pyrolysis

Every year the world produces more than one billion waste tyres, and because tyres cannot biodegrade they cannot simply be left to rot. Tyre pyrolysis is the thermal process that finally gives that material a useful end — breaking end-of-life tyres down, in an oxygen-starved reactor, into pyrolysis oil, recovered carbon black, steel and a combustible gas.

It is the most complete of the recycling routes for tyres. Where mechanical grinding and cryogenic grinding only reduce the tyre to smaller rubber, pyrolysis separates it back into its constituent value streams, recovering energy and materials at the same time.

How Tyre Pyrolysis Works

Pyrolysis is thermal decomposition in an inert atmosphere. The tyre is heated with little to no oxygen, so it cannot burn; instead the polymer chains split, releasing an oil vapour that is condensed into liquid, a non-condensable gas, and a solid char that retains the carbon black and steel wire.

The working line runs in a closed loop: tyres are shredded and de-wired, fed into a sealed reactor, and heated. The vapour passes through condensers to produce oil, the residual gas is scrubbed and recycled to heat the reactor, and the carbon black and steel are discharged at the end of the cycle.

Tyre Pyrolysis Temperature and Yield

Temperature is the master variable. It must be high enough to break the tyre apart, yet stay below the point where the oil vapour itself over-cracks into gas. Studies place the optimum between 425 °C and 720 °C, with maximum oil yields of roughly 38% to 60% depending on heating rate, reactor type, particle size and residence time.

Catalysts Improve Rate and Quality

Catalysts raise the pyrolysis rate, the oil yield and the oil quality. Published work using zeolites, activated alumina and metal-loaded supports has lifted oil yield and increased the aromatic content that makes the oil a better feedstock, and adjusted the balance of gasoline, kerosene and heavier fractions in the product.

Continuous Versus Batch Plants

The two plant families differ by operating mode. A continuous plant feeds tyres steadily, runs for weeks at a time and processes large volumes with high automation. A batch plant loads, heats, cools and reloads on a 16-to-20-hour cycle, suits smaller throughput and carries higher labour. For municipal or large commercial tyre volumes, continuous is the fitting choice.

The Products of Tyre Pyrolysis

By weight, pyrolysis yields roughly 45% oil, 35% carbon char, 15% steel wire, with a smaller gas fraction — four saleable outputs from a single input.

Tyre Pyrolysis Oil (TPO). A complex C5–C20 hydrocarbon mixture with a high heating value around 43 MJ/kg. It is used directly as an industrial fuel in boilers, cement kilns and steel plants, can run heavy-oil generators for power, and can be distilled further into a diesel-range fuel.

Recovered Carbon Black (rCB). The carbon char, upgraded, substitutes for virgin carbon black in inks, paints and rubber goods. Its value tracks three properties — particle size, structure and surface chemistry — which decide blackness, dispersibility and conductivity.

Steel wire and syngas. The steel is recovered and recycled; the non-condensable gas is burned to heat the reactor, which is why a well-designed pyrolysis plant is largely energy self-sufficient.

Environmental Performance

Run correctly, pyrolysis is pollution-free at the plant boundary: gas is scrubbed and recycled, water is recirculated, and the only solids are the saleable char and steel. The harm appears only when the process is done wrong — incomplete pyrolysis that emits dioxins, syngas vented instead of recycled, or oxygen ingress that turns pyrolysis into uncontrolled combustion.

Is Tyre Pyrolysis Profitable?

The technology is proven; returns are decided by planning. A plant is profitable when it holds a steady, contracted tyre supply, a firm market for its oil and recovered carbon black, and an engineered plant with the right throughput and heat recovery. Those are the factors that determine the outcome — never the purchase price of a machine alone.

Learn More:

• Commercial-Scale Tyre Pyrolysis — Klean Carbon, USA
• Recovered Carbon Black — Circular rCB Plant, India
• Tyre Pyrolysis Oil to Marine Fuel — Co-Processing
• Feasibility Studies for Tyre Pyrolysis

Build a Commercial Tyre Pyrolysis Plant with Klean

One guide, one decision: turn the roughly 45% oil, 35% recovered carbon black and 15% steel that tyre pyrolysis unlocks into a working commercial plant.

Klean has built 3 recovered carbon black plants in India over the past two years, holds a signed letter of intent to deliver five more, and had KBR add its TyreNova tyre-recycling technology to KBR’s IP portfolio — with KleanLoop blockchain providing end-to-end supply-chain traceability.

Ready to build a profitable tyre pyrolysis project?

Contact Klean Industries about Tyre Pyrolysis » GO.