Sustainable Development Goals
PROJECT INFORMATION AT A GLANCE:
Project Status:
Detailed Feasibility Study completed
Organizations Involved:
Klean Industries, Italiana Energetica Tire, Ecopneus, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Corporation, Nippon Steel & Sumikin Engineering, Steinmüller (Fisia) Babcock Environment Gmbh, Techint Engineering & Construction, Sojitz
Services / Equipment:
Feasibility Studies, Due Diligence
A 100-tonne-per-day pyrolysis plant needs more than a reactor. It needs 33,000 tonnes of dependable annual feedstock, products that customers will buy, and a design whose economics connect the two. Klean’s assignment for Italiana Energetica Tyre brought those requirements into one development plan.
In 2012, Italian entrepreneurs behind IET commissioned Klean to assess a flagship tyre pyrolysis development proposed for Milan. With support from Ecopneus and an industrial collaboration agenda involving Nippon Steel, Sumitomo, Techint and Sojitz, the project presented an opportunity to connect Italy’s end-of-life tyre supply with European demand for recovered materials and fuels.
Klean’s contribution was to turn that opportunity into a defined technical and commercial proposition. Its Detailed Feasibility Study (DFS) examined the plant design, feedstock strategy, product markets, financial model and development conditions together. Delivered in May 2013, the study identified the issues to resolve before a final investment decision and established a roadmap for the next stage.
Klean’s original assessment placed Italy’s annual end-of-life tyre generation at nearly 500,000 tonnes. IET’s proposed 33,000-tonne annual capacity represented approximately 6.6% of that national volume, a substantial industrial undertaking, even in a large tyre market.
The commercial task was to translate national availability into a dependable supply for one specific facility. Italy’s developing producer-responsibility system, collection arrangements and competing outlets all influenced which tyres could reach the plant, on what terms and at what cost. Klean assessed these flows within the Ecopneus stewardship context and the Italian regulatory framework.
The same discipline applied to the plant’s outputs. Producing oil and carbon was only the beginning. The proposed process needed to deliver qualities suitable for identifiable customers, at a scale and cost that supported the investment. Technical performance, product acceptance and commercial returns had to work together.
Define a plant that fits its supply.
Klean examined the proposed 100-tonne-per-day configuration alongside the sourcing strategy and operating assumptions. The annual design basis of 33,000 tonnes corresponds to 330 operating days at the stated daily capacity. This connected the scale of the equipment to the annual supply obligation and financial model, giving the development team a common basis for its decisions.
Develop the product proposition alongside the process.
The DFS assessed tyre pyrolysis oil (TPO), including its biogenic component, for European fuel and industrial markets. It also examined the viability of recovered carbon black (rCB) against the quality and specification requirements of potential applications. Product quality was central to the business case: the process had to recover materials that could earn a place in existing supply chains.
That work connected engineering decisions to revenue assumptions. Feedstock characteristics and process configuration influence product quality; customer requirements determine which products can be sold and on what terms. Evaluating them together helps establish where value can actually be captured.
Bring industrial participants into a coherent development plan.
Klean’s assignment included aligning the technical proposition with Ecopneus, Nippon Steel, Sumitomo, Techint and Sojitz. The breadth of that work mattered. A collection system, an engineering organization and a commodity customer each approach a project from a different direction. The development plan needed to connect their requirements around a workable facility and a credible commercial structure.
Klean combined that industrial perspective with financial modelling and an assessment of permitting, feedstock and offtake dependencies. The result was a project-specific roadmap that brought the investment discussion back to the conditions needed for successful execution.
Klean delivered the DFS in May 2013, identifying the feedstock stability, plant-design and product-offtake issues that needed resolution as IET worked toward a final investment decision. The assignment made those dependencies visible while the project could still address them through its design, contracts and development strategy.
Here is what the IET assignment demonstrates most clearly: even with heavyweight industrial names behind a project, the big organisations can still get it wrong, and Klean is not afraid to tell them so and walk away. With Nippon Steel, Sumitomo, Techint, Sojitz and Ecopneus aligned behind a 33,000-tonne development, Klean withdrew from the potential joint-venture and equipment-supply role rather than proceed on a basis its own assessment could not support.
The project never got built. That is not a missed opportunity, it is the outcome a rigorous feasibility study exists to produce. A study should catch what even the largest organisations can miss before capital is committed, and Klean would rather deliver that honesty than proceed on an unsound basis. Telling the truth in that room, and walking away when the pieces did not add up, protected both the client’s capital and Klean’s standing.
The value of the IET assignment lies in Klean’s ability to connect an entire industrial business, tyre collection, processing capacity, product specifications, customer demand and investment requirements, and to say plainly when the pieces do not add up. For founders and investors, that breadth and candour are worth more than a study that tells you what you want to hear.
1. Scale must be matched to accessible supply.
The proposed 33,000-tonne annual plant required a sourcing strategy grounded in Italy’s collection and stewardship system.
2. Product markets belong inside the engineering brief.
TPO and rCB requirements influence process choices, product value and the financial case from the outset.
3. Klean’s judgment is independent.
Klean coordinated heavyweight industrial participants — Nippon Steel, Sumitomo, Techint, Sojitz and Ecopneus — and still told them the truth, walking away when the project was not right.
These selected lessons illustrate how Klean’s experience can shape a project before equipment orders and construction commitments fix its direction.
Before committing to a pyrolysis plant, establish how the whole business will work.
If you have access to tyres, an industrial site or a potential product customer, Klean can help connect those advantages into a defined project. The IET assignment demonstrates the scope of that work: supply, technology, product quality, markets and investment requirements considered together and an honest answer at the end of it.
For new engagements, a paid Detailed Equipment Quotation (DEQ) establishes the initial equipment scope, followed by a DFS to evaluate the technical and commercial case and Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) as the project advances. Scope, fees and deliverables are agreed for the specific assignment.
Discuss Your Tyre Pyrolysis Development with Klean >> GO.
Learn More:
ABOUT THE INFORMATION PRESENTED
This case describes Klean’s historical IET assignment. Capacities are proposed design figures, not reported operating throughput. Project performance and economics depend on location, feedstock, design, product specifications and commercial arrangements. Confidential client information and detailed study findings are not disclosed.
This project addresses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by considering the goals and associated targets illustrated by the WBCSD’s Tire Industry Project (TIP). TIP provides a framework for action that outlines impactful pathways for the tire sector to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To learn more about how Klean’s approach, solutions, and technologies contribute to advancing the SDGs, please review the report “Sustainability Driven: Accelerating Impact with the Tire Sector SDG Roadmap”.
