Urban Oil Fields: Turning Waste Tires and Plastics into Valuable Resources
Turning discarded materials into domestic energy, circular feedstocks, sustainable commodities, and skilled jobs.
Klean Industries Inc. (“Klean”), a specialist in advanced recycling and resource recovery, is advancing a practical approach to recovering hydrocarbons already embedded in discarded products. Through integrated pyrolysis technologies, end-of-life tires and suitable waste plastics become feedstocks for producing valuable oils, recovered materials, and process energy.
Klean describes this opportunity as “urban oil fields”: a resource found in the materials society discards every day. Recovering that value connects waste management with industrial demand for alternative feedstocks, supporting domestic production and more circular supply chains.
Recovering the Value Already in Waste
Tires and plastics contain valuable hydrocarbons that can be recovered through appropriately designed thermal conversion processes. Pyrolysis breaks down these materials under controlled conditions without oxygen, producing oils, gases, and solid residues whose composition depends on the feedstock and process.
For end-of-life tires, an integrated facility can recover tire pyrolysis oil, carbon-rich material for upgrading into recovered carbon black, and steel. Suitable waste plastics can provide oils and other hydrocarbon products for further processing.
The commercial opportunity extends beyond producing oil. It lies in preparing consistent feedstocks, integrating the complete process, and delivering products that meet the requirements of identified buyers.
From Pyrolysis Oil to Industrial Feedstock
Klean’s approach connects resource recovery with established industrial markets. Depending on composition, treatment, and customer specifications, pyrolysis oils can serve as feedstocks for refining, chemical manufacturing, and other qualified applications.
Tire pyrolysis oil offers opportunities for refinery co-processing and the production of new carbon black. Oils recovered from suitable waste plastics can provide feedstocks for chemical recycling, helping return recovered hydrocarbons to manufacturing.
These applications require product testing, qualification, and, where necessary, upgrading. Klean therefore considers the intended end market from the outset, aligning technology selection and process design with the specifications customers require.
The distinction between circular and renewable content also matters. Recovering hydrocarbons from waste supports resource circularity; renewable content depends on the biological origin of the feedstock. Tire-derived oil can contain a biogenic fraction originating from natural rubber, while conventional fossil-derived plastics do not become renewable simply because they are recycled.
Integrated Technology, Commercial Project Development
Successful waste-to-oil projects depend on the performance of the complete facility. Feedstock preparation, thermal processing, oil recovery, gas management, emissions controls, product finishing, and operator training must work together.
Klean combines technology expertise with engineering, operational knowledge, and commercial project development to address these requirements. Its development process examines feedstock availability and quality, site suitability, permitting, utilities, product markets, capital requirements, and operating economics before progressing to detailed engineering and execution.
This disciplined approach helps developers establish a credible business case and identify the conditions needed for reliable commercial operation.
Building Reliable Markets for Recovered Products
Long-term product markets are central to project viability. Producing a recoverable material is the first step; qualifying it for an industrial application and establishing dependable customer relationships are equally important.
Klean works to connect tire recycling and waste-plastic processing with buyers seeking alternative raw materials. Product qualification and appropriately structured offtake agreements help align plant design with customer demand and support the assessment of project financing.
The same discipline applies to feedstock supply. Collection systems, competing uses, transportation costs, and supply agreements determine the commercial value of locally available waste. Each project must establish its own supply and revenue model, including whether feedstock attracts a purchase cost or a processing fee.
Domestic Resources with Measurable Value
Recovering useful materials from waste can diversify domestic feedstock supply, reduce reliance on disposal, and create skilled employment in engineering, construction, operations, maintenance, and logistics.
Environmental performance must be demonstrated for each project. Feedstock composition, energy consumption, product use, and the materials or disposal methods displaced all influence lifecycle results. Carbon-credit opportunities require separate assessment under the relevant methodology and verification requirements.
For Klean, the objective is to build commercially sound facilities that deliver consistent products and measurable resource-recovery benefits.
Develop the Next Urban Oil Field with Klean
The resources needed for new industrial supply chains are already circulating through the economy. Klean’s role is to connect those resources with proven processing technologies, qualified product markets, and a structured development pathway.
Klean welcomes discussions with tire recyclers, waste-plastic processors, refiners, chemical producers, project developers, and prospective product buyers seeking to turn discarded materials into productive assets.
Learn more:
- Klean’s 2021 announcement on waste-to-oil technology and manufacturing expansion
- TyreNova tire pyrolysis technology and recovered carbon black production
- Pyrolysis oil upgrading and circular hydrocarbon recovery
- Tire pyrolysis oil co-processing and the Viva Energy development
- Pyrolysis plant costs and Klean’s Detailed Equipment Quotation process
Turn Waste Resources into a Commercial Opportunity
Evaluating waste-to-oil technology for end-of-life tires or suitable waste plastics? Klean helps align feedstock, technology, product specifications, and customer markets through a structured project-development process. Discuss your project, licensing requirements, or product offtake opportunity with our team.
About Klean Industries
Klean Industries (“Klean”) provides technologies and integrated solutions for the waste-to-value industry. Its international team brings decades of experience in process design, engineering, equipment manufacturing, project development, and plant operations.
Klean develops projects using pyrolysis, gasification, and carbonization to recover value from end-of-life tires, suitable waste plastics, biomass, and other waste streams. Through technology licensing, strategic partnerships, and project development, the company connects resource recovery with industrial markets for fuels, circular feedstocks, recovered carbon, and other valuable products.
Klean’s mission is to turn waste into domestic energy, sustainable commodities, and skilled jobs while supporting a low-carbon, circular economy and reducing reliance on landfill disposal.
Corporate Headquarters
Klean Industries Inc.
Suite 2500 – 700 W. Georgia St.
Vancouver, BC
Canada, V7Y 1B3
Telephone: +1.604.637.9609
Toll-free: +1.866.302.5928
Email: sales(@)kleanindustries.com
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