Vow ASA announced that its subsidiary Scanship AS had signed a FEED (Front End Engineering Design) contract with Murfitts Industries, the leading end-of-life tire recycling company.

The contract is the latest step in a program that has seen the two companies co-operating on the development of a process to recover and re-use the raw materials from end-of-life tires on a commercial scale. A major objective of the program is to enable manufacturers to use the recovered material in the production of new tires - helping to close the loop in a product lifecycle.

The new FEED contract will result in the design and construction plans for a large-scale pyrolysis plant, with the expectation that this will be operational in 2026. The plant will produce recovered Carbon Black (rCB), which will be used in the production of new tires; tire pyrolysis oil (TPO), which can then be refined to produce sustainable fuels; and syngas, which can be converted to energy.

Extensive trials of the processes have shown that the recovered materials meet the high standards demanded by manufacturers for their products. They especially appeal to those companies who are looking to improve their own sustainability by re-using secondary materials in their products and replacing virgin materials.

Mark Murfitt, CEO of Murfitts Industries

, said: “We’ve been working with Vow for many years and this FEED contract represents a significant milestone in our co-operation. We have focused on developing a program that is industry-leading in the sustainable recovery of end-of-life tires. The investment we’re making in this next stage will deliver a plant that can meet the needs of manufacturers at a commercial scale. This is vital in giving them certainty, predictability, and confidence in the quality and quantity of the recovered material.”

Murfitts Industries is the largest tire recycling company in the UK and is part of the EUROPEAN TYRE ENTERPRISE LIMITED (ETEL). The ETEL group also includes a large tire retail company with operations in the UK, Netherlands, and Italy, as well as a tire wholesale and distribution network. ETEL’s parent company is the ITOCHU Corporation, which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Press release by Vow ASA.