Tyres to Oil Trial in USA

Ervin Lee, of North Dakota, has developed a process for turning scrap tyres into oil and other petroleum products and he plans a trial, utilising a pile of 9,000 tyres.

The tyres are shredded, heated and a chemical compound added to break down the tyres into their component parts. Lee estimates that he can get one gallon of oil from each tyre and, if the trial is successful, he wants to build a $15 million plant to process 3,000 tyres a day.