Sustainable Development Goals
PROJECT INFORMATION AT A GLANCE:
Project Status:
Historical tire pyrolysis reference
Organizations Involved:
Nippon Steel, Hirohata City, Japanese Automobile Tire Manufacturers Association, Several Tire Recyclers
Services / Equipment:
Design & Engineering, Due Diligence, Supply Chain Management, Component Supply
What happens when the customer for recovered tyre resources is the steelworks itself? At Hirohata, the answer was an industrial system that put recovered carbon, oil, steel and energy to work in steel production. Klean’s original case records 87% of recovered resources consumed internally, with the remaining 13% used as fuel to sustain the recovery process.
This is the commercial significance of integration. An established manufacturer already purchases carbon, metal and energy. Connecting tyre recovery to those requirements creates value through resources the industrial operation can use directly. The recovery plant’s outputs become inputs to another productive process.
At a reported scale exceeding 70,000 tonnes of tyres a year, this case demonstrates how resource recovery can become part of industrial supply. For developers, it raises a valuable question: which existing industrial customer could anchor the design of your project?
Japan’s rapid motorization created a tyre-recycling challenge on a national scale. Klean’s historical account traces annual new-tyre production from approximately 64 million in the 1960s to more than 124 million by 1970, while discarded tyres rose from approximately 22 million to more than 41 million. By 2000, annual waste-tyre volumes exceeded one million tonnes.
A durable solution needed collection, processing and a productive destination for the recovered resources. Steel manufacturing offered a compelling fit: tyres contain steel reinforcement, carbon and substantial chemical energy, all relevant to an industry that consumes large quantities of metal and fuel.
Hirohata developed a collection system drawing tyres from across Japan and connected that supply to industrial processes capable of using their constituent materials. The opportunity was to replace part of the steelworks’ conventional resource demand while addressing a growing waste stream.
Put the tyre’s components to work.
From 1999, Hirohata used cut waste tyres in its Scrap Melting Process (SMP), partially replacing coal and scrap iron. Klean’s original account describes consumption of a little over 5,000 tonnes per month in this application. Steel cords provided metal, while the rubber contributed carbon and energy to the melting process. Recovered gas also provided fuel for use within the works.
Recover separate resources for the industrial customer.
A separate tyre thermal-recovery facility followed in 2004. Nippon Steel’s technical account describes two externally heated rotary kilns that decomposed tyre chips, with downstream recovery of oil and combustible gas and separation of carbon and steel. This route supplied distinct recovered streams for steelworks use, complementing direct tyre use in SMP.
The two routes illustrate the same principle through different configurations: select the conversion process around the receiving industry’s requirements. Direct tyre use in a melting furnace and the recovery of separate oil, carbon and steel streams each need their own engineering basis.
Make the product destination part of the plant design.
The significance goes beyond co-location. Carbon has a defined industrial function. Steel has a route back into metal production. Oil and gas serve energy demand. The design connects those uses to the recovery process through feed preparation, product handling and industrial interfaces.
This is why product quality must be defined by the intended application. Carbon recovered for steelmaking serves a different purpose from rCB qualified for tyre compounding. Understanding that distinction helps developers select the processing and finishing steps that create value for their actual customer.
Klean’s original project account reports the following approximate annual scale and outcomes for the recovery case:
These figures describe the historical recovery case. The earlier monthly SMP figure concerns direct tyre use and is a separate operating reference.
The central achievement is the connection between recovery and demand. Tyres supplied materials and energy that an existing industrial operation needed. Internal consumption converted recovered-resource value into a contribution to steel production, while process-fuel recovery helped meet the recycling operation’s own energy requirement.
For an investor, this changes how the business is evaluated. The value of a recovered material can include the cost of the conventional resource it replaces inside the host operation. An industrial partner’s requirements can therefore shape the process configuration, product specifications and commercial case from the beginning.
The engineering opportunity is to connect the entire chain: collect the appropriate tyres, prepare them for the selected process, recover useful resources and deliver those resources in a form the industrial customer can consume.
Klean’s project record identifies design and engineering, due diligence, supply-chain management and component supply as the service and equipment categories associated with this case. Nippon Steel’s Hirohata operation provides the industrial example; the commercial lesson for a new Klean engagement is to develop the recovery process and its customer requirements together.
For a steelmaker or other industrial resource user, that can mean examining which purchased materials and fuels could be displaced. For a tyre recycler, it can mean identifying an industrial partner whose requirements provide a stronger basis for process selection and product development. Klean brings the engineering and commercial perspective needed to assess those connections and define the appropriate project.
1. An industrial customer can anchor the recovery business.
Hirohata’s internal use of recovered resources demonstrates the value of connecting production to established consumption.
2. Design products for the application that creates value.
Steelmaking carbon, recycled steel and recovered fuels serve specific needs; the process and product specifications should follow those needs.
3. Integration extends from collection to consumption.
Feedstock preparation, thermal processing, product handling and the receiving plant must work together to realize the opportunity.
These are selected lessons. The deeper value lies in applying Klean’s technical and commercial know-how to a particular industrial site and customer through a defined engagement.
Your strongest product market may be an industrial operation that already buys the resources your tyres contain.
If you operate a steelworks, supply industrial fuels or carbon, or control a tyre feedstock stream, engage Klean to evaluate the connection. Start with the industrial demand, available feedstock and site, then define the processing system that can serve them.
For new developments, the paid Detailed Equipment Quotation (DEQ) establishes the initial equipment and project basis. A Detailed Feasibility Study (DFS) develops the technical and commercial case, followed by Front-End Engineering Design (FEED). Each stage has an agreed scope, deliverables and fee.
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ABOUT THE INFORMATION PRESENTED
This case describes historical industrial integration and approximate outcomes reported in Klean’s original project account. Results are specific to the application, operating configuration and reporting basis; they are not forecasts for other projects. Detailed technical and commercial records remain subject to confidentiality and permitted disclosure.
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”.
