Ukrainian Tyre Recycler Coral Group Joins TRIB

Coral Group Ecological Technologies (Ukraine) has become the latest company to join the Tire Retread & Repair Information Bureau (TRIB). Formed just over five years ago, Coral Group has developed what TRIB describes as “a very important method for recycling waste tyres and has a pilot plant in operation in the Ukraine to prove the economic and environmental benefits of their method.” Coral Group’s method is a pyrolisis-based technique that the company says results in an “ecologically clean and financially beneficial method of recycling the worn out automobile tyres.”

To get an idea of the scale of what Coral Group are planning, subscribers can view company’s corporate video below.

Coral Group’s process involves the fractional distillation of post-pyrolysis materials. This system uses an electromagnetic field principle to ensure uniform heating of waste tyres, without access of oxygen. Company representatives point out that while pyrolysis has been in tyre recycling before, most of the existing technologies use outside heating techniques that create too high a temperature deferential.   However, in the first instance tyres are chipped down to 10 x 10cm pieces. After pyrolysis has been completed the three fractions are separated: the gaseous fraction rises through special tubes into a distillation station while the solid fraction falls into the bottom part of the pyrolysis chamber.

The gaseous fraction is then distilled and liquids are extracted. The leftover gasses are separated into light gas, propane-butane and divinil (butadiene). The light gas is transported to a gas-power generator, which provides up to 20 per cent of the power needed to run the plant. The liquid fraction is further distilled, to produce kerosene, benzene, diesel fuel and black oil. The solid fraction consists of metallic wire, which can be sold as scrap metal and carbon. Any remaining carbon undergoes further purification processes before being sold as a partial substitute for carbon black and absorbents.

According to the company, the fractional composition of the liquid materials (oil) shows that up to 85 per cent of them can be used in motor fuel production, – apparently more than twice as much as one can get from natural oil  Brent trademark.

The plan is to build a huge factory in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, but in the meantime the holding Coral Group reports that it has constructed a mini-factory that uses this technology and demonstrates the entire recycling.

Earlier this year an independent expert from Pelmar Engineering visited Coral Group’s Dnepropetrovsk site and “preformed preliminary testing of the newly developed technology.” After discussing several issues, Coral reports that the expert deemed the technological solution and its technical implementation to have “several major advantages over today’s methods.” This visit followed a request from KPMG analysts looking into the financial potential of the technology to involve an outside expert to evaluate the potential of the innovative method and to grant his professional opinion on the subject of use of this technology in industrial scale worldwide.