Sustainable Development Goals
PROJECT INFORMATION AT A GLANCE:
Project Status:
Hired Klean to decommission
Organizations Involved:
Klean Industries, L&S Trading, Menanjung, Pell Frischmann, Worley Parsons, Pegasus Capital Advisors
Services / Equipment:
Due Diligence, Feasibility Studies, Plant Decommissioning
US$25 million in initial funding. A plant designed for 60 tonnes of tyres a day. An ambition to double that capacity. Yet the project could not sustain the continuous operation or product revenues its business depended on. Klean was brought in to determine what could be recovered and ultimately led its decommissioning.
This Malaysian assignment gave Klean direct insight into how a substantial pyrolysis investment can unravel when feedstock, equipment, process performance and product markets are developed without a workable connection between them. The lessons came from examining the installed facility, assessing its recovery options and dismantling it. They became part of the engineering and commercial knowledge Klean applies to subsequent projects.
For developers and investors, that experience matters. Klean understands how these projects are intended to work and has been called in to examine what happens when they do not.
Klean’s original account described a Malaysian market generating more than 32 million end-of-life tyres annually. In the early 2000s, Octagon Consolidated Berhad and its subsidiary Advanced Pyrotech Sdn Bhd (APT) pursued one of the country’s ambitious early attempts at commercial continuous tyre pyrolysis, working with KK Incinerator Engineering & Construction (KKIEC).
The proposed business combined pyrolysis oil, carbon char and gas fuel revenues with anticipated environmental-credit value. Its 60-tonne/day design and planned 120-tonne/day expansion required dependable supply, sustained operation and customers for its outputs. Klean’s assessment identified weaknesses across all three.
Feedstock availability had not become feedstock security.
The project lacked guaranteed long-term supply agreements and depended heavily on imported tyres. Klean’s account identified contamination and an inadequate valuation of the imported material among the problems. A large national tyre market could not compensate for an unreliable supply arrangement at the plant gate. Feedstock quality, preparation, logistics and delivered cost all affected the operating case.
The continuous-operation ambition exceeded the technology’s demonstrated capability.
The process had not been proven beyond small-batch trials before the commercial-scale deployment. It failed to sustain the continuous operation required at the intended volumes. Design changes, execution gaps and operating problems then drove delays and rising capital expenditure. The intended expansion could not resolve the underlying performance problem.
Recovered material did not automatically become a saleable product.
The carbon char lacked a clear upgrading route, while the oil lacked refining or offtake arrangements. Those gaps weakened the revenue case. Carbon residue requires the appropriate processing and qualification to become marketable rCB; oil needs a defined customer, specification and delivery route. Permitting uncertainty and gaps in ongoing oversight added further difficulty.
Klean’s historical account records receivership and permanent shutdown by 2014. The result was an idle industrial asset requiring a decision about its future.
In 2017, Malaysia’s Insolvency Department invited Klean to assess the failed project and advise on recovery pathways. Klean undertook a comprehensive feasibility review covering the installation’s technical, environmental and financial position.
The question was whether the existing plant could support a credible return to production. Klean concluded that the legacy technology and plant configuration contained fundamental flaws that made the installation unsuitable for recommissioning. The problems required more than routine repairs or additional operating expenditure.
Klean then led the facility’s decommissioning, removing the equipment from the site. This brought the legacy installation to a close and cleared the equipment footprint for future development planning.
Knowing when a plant cannot be recovered is a consequential engineering judgement. Owners need an adviser who can distinguish repairable equipment problems from a process configuration that cannot support the intended business. In this assignment, Klean carried that judgement through to physical decommissioning.
The original plant was not salvaged. The lasting value for Klean was the depth of knowledge gained from assessing why it failed and what future projects needed to address earlier. Klean used the assignment to refine internal risk protocols and its development framework for tyre-derived fuels and recovered carbon black.
Match the supply contracts to the operating plan. Feedstock arrangements must address volume, quality, preparation and logistics before financing. The Malaysian experience reinforced why national waste-generation figures alone cannot underpin a plant’s production forecast.
Evaluate sustained production across the complete process. The reactor, feed preparation, material handling, controls, utilities and product recovery must function together. Commercial capability depends on repeatable throughput and consistent output over time. A successful trial or a nameplate rating cannot establish that performance on its own.
Engineer the product’s route to the customer. Carbon upgrading and any necessary oil treatment belong in the plant scope and economics from the beginning. Customer specifications and offtake arrangements help define the equipment and quality controls required to realize product value.
Resolve design and execution issues before construction magnifies their cost. Detailed feasibility, hazard and operability studies (HAZOP), engineering oversight and permitting coordination are integral to development. The assignment strengthened Klean’s approach to identifying these dependencies while project design remains flexible.
This is practical know-how gained through direct intervention in a failed industrial project. It informs Klean’s work with developers and asset owners who need to understand what will make their own plant operate reliably and serve its markets. The Malaysian venture did not survive but the lessons Klean drew from its assessment did. This case is not a story of failure; it is the origin of a blueprint.
1. Capital and capacity do not establish commercial performance.
The original US$25 million development and 60-tonne/day design still depended on sustained operation, secure feedstock and saleable products.
2. The business extends beyond the reactor.
Supply logistics, process integration, carbon upgrading and oil customers determine whether production can generate dependable revenue.
3. Experience includes knowing when to stop.
Klean assessed the recovery options, concluded the legacy configuration was unsuitable for restart and led decommissioning. Those lessons strengthened its approach to subsequent development.
These are selected lessons, not an exhaustive account. Klean applies the deeper technical and commercial knowledge through project-specific engagements.
Bring the lessons from a failed plant into your project before they become your own costs.
If you are evaluating a technology supplier, planning a new facility or considering the purchase or restart of an existing plant, engage Klean while the major decisions remain open. Klean can assess how the proposed equipment, feedstock, product markets and execution plan fit together — and what needs to change.
Existing facilities can begin with a defined, paid technical and commercial assessment. For new or replacement plants, the development pathway progresses from a paid Detailed Equipment Quotation (DEQ) to a Detailed Feasibility Study (DFS), followed by Front-End Engineering Design (FEED). Each stage has an agreed scope and deliverables.
Assess Your Pyrolysis Plant or Development with Klean >> GO.
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ABOUT THE INFORMATION PRESENTED
This case draws on Klean’s historical project assessment and decommissioning experience. Capacity figures describe the original design and planned expansion, not achieved throughput. Technical conclusions concern the installation assessed at that time. Confidential project records and detailed findings are not disclosed; recovery options and development outcomes remain specific to each project.
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”.
