Klean Industries and City Circle Group are planning to launch a next-generation tire pyrolysis plant in Australia. The plant will recover carbon black and produce renewable fuels from end-of-life tires, supporting the nation’s circular economy and clean energy goals.

Vancouver, British Columbia — Klean Industries Inc (“Klean”) is pleased to announce that it has partnered with City Circle Group (“CCG”) to build a fully integrated, continuous tyre pyrolysis plant to recover carbon black and biofuel in Melbourne, Australia. Like Klean Industries, City Circle Group (“CCG”) is a well-established family-run business. CCG was founded in 1981 and has built a reputation as a leading provider in demolition, decommissioning, remediation, excavation, and recycling in Australia. Since introducing recycling and reuse initiatives, CCG is now unique in its capacity to dismantle, demolish, and deconstruct buildings and is a leading company in transforming and recycling 100% of all the building materials resulting from deconstruction activities. In doing so, CCG converts all the waste into new building materials and commodities for reuse. CCG’s sustainability goals and practices set it apart from competitors, and its reputation for excellence and reliability has made it a preferred contractor to many of Australia’s top-tier developers and builders. 

It’s no secret that Australia has a massive waste problem that is out of control, and disposal fees continue to rise. End-of-life Tyres (“ELT”) and End-of-Life Plastics (“ELP”) are piling up and being dumped in landfills all over the country. Klean and CCG aim to solve this environmental crisis by teaming up and combining their combined skillsets to create meaningful change that will help Australia develop a low-carbon, circular economy while reinforcing the goal of zero waste to landfill. Both parties see significant opportunities for creating hundreds of new and highly skilled cleantech jobs with enough project opportunities in Australia to invest billions of dollars into the Australian economy over the next decade.

Australia currently accumulates over 450,000 metric tonnes of end-of-life tyres annually or approximately 50m scrap tyres annually. That’s enough waste tyres to build 8-10 commercial-scale projects nationwide. Australia currently operates a voluntary Stewardship scheme operated by Tyre Stewardship Australia (“TSA”). TSA accounts for the management of approximately 25% of the scrap tyres produced and collected and is currently financed by the voluntary contribution of 49% of tyre importers and has almost 1,700 accredited participants, which include tyre retailers, collectors/recyclers, local government, mining, and fleet organizations. The Government of Australia has stated that the TSA Tyre Product Stewardship Scheme (“Scheme”) has now reached its peak in its ability to recover and reuse end-of-life tyres effectively. The existing Scheme is still far from leveraging the full environmental, social, and economic benefits this recovered resource can deliver. Without timely regulatory intervention, the Scheme will be unable to shift the needle on these critical indicators or meet community expectations to maximize waste reduction, reuse, and recycling outcomes within Australia. At the most recent Australian environment minister’s meeting in late October 2022, several waste streams were prioritized, amongst them, the tyre sector. As a voluntary Scheme, TSA has reached its limits, paving the way for negotiations to follow Tyrewise in New Zealand with a compulsory Extended Producer Responsibility (“EPR”) scheme.

Klean and CCG have been working together in planning a project in Melbourne for the past twelve months and have been engaged in the final analysis of a Detailed Feasibility Study (“DFS”) to design and build a fully integrated tire pyrolysis plant. The result thus far has illustrated a significant opportunity, and the parties are now in the final phases of contract negotiations with feedstock providers and offtake parties for all the project output products that are being pre-sold. Both CCG and Klean see the prospects of this project playing a significant role in creating a circular economy within the region as it addresses several key issues designated under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (“SDG”) and will create economic opportunities and environmental benefits for the local economy in Melbourne. The parties plan to complete the DFS by the end of December 2022 and anticipate the project being financed before the end of the first quarter of 2023, with construction taking place in 2023 and operations starting in 2024. 

A project site is already secured, and planning permission and permitting are underway. The project is centrally located 45 km northwest of Melbourne, Victoria, and has access to a highly skilled workforce. Given the ease of establishing and conducting business in Melbourne, the decision to locate a tyre carbonization facility is compelling and logical, offering numerous short-term and long-term benefits to the area. 

The Melbourne project includes Klean’s commercial scale, environmentally friendly scrap tyre carbonization technology with a planned initial capacity of up to 120 metric tonnes per day (“TPD”), which is approximately 12,000 tyres per day and equates to approximately 40,000 metric tonnes per annum (“TPA”). The project is designed to convert the waste tyres into highly valuable recovered carbon black (“rCB”) and recovered fuel oil (“rFO”). This plant will fully integrate Klean’s proprietary tyre char upgrading technologies. This enables the transformation of low-value tyre char into high-value carbon black replacements, which can replace Virgin Carbon Black (“vCB”) by volumes of 10% up to 100% depending on the specific application. Klean pioneered the commercial scale process for converting end-of-life tires into desirable black carbon alternatives and renewable biofuels that deliver significant environmental savings.

Manufacturing new tyres uses tremendous amounts of petroleum and carbon black from non-renewable resources. Compared to manufacturing virgin carbon black, Klean’s CBk KleanCarbon uses +90% less water and emits +90% fewer greenhouse gases than traditional carbon black production and is an environmentally responsible alternative to virgin carbon black derived from end-of-life tires. Klean’s CBk KleanCarbon performs similarly to specific ASTM reference grades of virgin carbon black but has unique physical properties and performance characteristics that not only improve environmental and function performance but also offer significant cost advantages. 

The global effort to reduce CO2 emissions means that manufacturing companies face growing regulatory pressure to decarbonize the supporting raw material supply chains and minimize their carbon footprint. Virgin carbon black is a primary resource for manufacturing tyres, rubber, and plastics. Reducing the environmental impact of virgin carbon black is desperately needed to comply with current emission reduction targets and strategies to enable the transition to a low-carbon circular economy. CBk KleanCarbon reduces less than 450kg of carbon emission per metric tonne of rCB. In contrast, carbon emissions can exceed 2.5 metric tonnes of carbon emission for every metric tonne of virgin carbon black production.

The CCG plant will also include upgraded fuel oil technologies for the conversion of the recovered pyrolysis oil. The pyrolysis oil is condensed and then split into two streams, of which approximately 85% is a hydrocarbon product of similar quality to VLSFO, 1%, and 15% is a naphtha-like product. Additional attributes include notable reductions in carbon emissions as the resulting rFO contains a biobased content of approximately 35-40%, resulting from natural rubber found in end-of-life tires. The CCG facility will be ISO 9001 and 14001 certified, and all products will also be ISCC-certified as circular raw materials.

The resulting products from the Melbourne project will then re-enter the virgin raw material supply chain through the local marine fuel market, new tyre, rubber compounding, and virgin carbon black manufacturing industries. This enables these industries to create product circularity by re-integrating recovered resources into the marketplace, improving environmental performance, and lowering raw material product costs while offsetting emissions associated with their respective industries. The Melbourne facility is estimated to offset carbon emissions in excess of 50,000 metric tonnes annually. 

This project will also include the KleanLoop™ software as a service (“Saas”) platform to create a fully transparent end-of-life tyre recycling and tire manufacturing marketplace. The CGG plant will be the second tire recycling project to combine all its operation data on the Blockchain. It will feature a fully integrated track and trace program for everything it receives and produces that will cross several supply chains from end-of-life tyre collection to recovered carbon black sales to the carbon emission offset created by the project.

“It is with great excitement that we announce this project and partnership with Klean Industries. Through a long process, we are committed to realizing that this facility combines the world’s best practices with local knowledge to solve one of Victoria’s most troublesome waste streams. The concept of waste-to-commodity recycling fits within our vision to become a truly circular economy business that provides real and positive outcomes to our communities.”, said Matt Skidmore, City Circle Group CEO.

“We are thrilled to be taking resource recovery to a new level in Australia. With CCG as our partner, we will define a new era in terms of what it means to develop clean industries. Our industry partnerships speak to our credibility, and it is these relationships that support and enable our team to build world-class facilities that set the global standard in Environmental, Social, Governance (“ESG”) but will also enhance Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) to a level not seen before in Australia.” commented Jesse Klinkhamer, Klean Industries, CEO. 

The Project investment is estimated to be US $100 million, and the construction period is approximately 12 to 18 months. The project is eligible for additional incentives under various programs that support the low-carbon and circular economy, and both CCG and Klean are exploring several opportunities for such grants. 

Learn more:

• Recovered Carbon Black
• Tire Pyrolysis Technologies
• Australia Projects

Tire Waste Reimagined: Clean Fuel & Carbon Recovery in Australia

The project marks a significant leap forward for tire recycling in Australia. This flagship pyrolysis plant will transform discarded tires into high-quality recovered carbon black and renewable fuels—helping to close the loop and reduce reliance on fossil-derived materials.

Key Project Benefits:

✅ Diverts tires from landfills and incineration
✅ Produces sustainable, low-carbon raw materials
✅ Drives ESG goals and zero-waste mandates
✅ Creates skilled jobs and green infrastructure

Connect with Klean Industries to explore partnerships, licensing, or supply opportunities in Australia’s growing circular economy sector » GO.

About City Circle Group

Established 40 years ago, City Circle Group is still a wholly owned and operated family business. CCG has built a reputation as a leading provider in demolition, decommissioning, remediation, and recycling in Australia. It has grown to offer diverse expert services tailored to each project and through a ceaseless commitment to every client along the way. CCG constantly strives for innovation and best practices, with its core principles focused on expertise, sustainability, and safety while delivering the highest level of service to its clients and the environment. 

City Circle employs over 150 highly experienced professionals and a range of machinery and equipment. In 1999, we established City Circle Recycling (CCR) to complement our demolition operation and advance our ‘zero-waste’ ambitions. Since then, it has grown from a one-facility operation, turning over 3,000 tons per month, to three facilities across Melbourne, producing well over a million tonnes of building materials from the very waste its demolition activity generates.

For more information about City Circle, please visit www.citycirclegroup.com.au. 

About Klean Industries

Klean Industries (“Klean”) provides best-in-class technologies and solutions in the waste-to-value industry. Our international team of award-winning experts has decades of experience designing, engineering, and manufacturing the highest-quality equipment to convert waste streams into valuable energy and resources. Klean’s unique products and services result from combined knowledge in the design of recycling, resource recovery, waste management, and power generation projects. Our global project management expertise safeguards timelines and budgets, enabling projects to be delivered quickly and at lower costs.

Klean uses proprietary technologies to rapidly develop projects that produce the highest quality fuels, recovered carbon blacks, and green hydrogen from various feedstocks. Our know-how and skillfulness provide a specialization in building projects that use advanced thermal technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification, and carbonization, which convert end-of-life tires, waste plastics, and municipal solid waste into domestic energy, sustainable commodities, and new cleantech jobs. We create a symbiosis between waste, resources, and energy. Klean Industries is the link between the low carbon, circular economy, and the goal of zero waste to landfill.

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