TREC: Michelin partners to extract alcohol and rubber from used tyres

Four French companies are partnering in a project to develop further applications for used tyres. Work is being carried out under the TREC project name and Michelin’s leadership; TREC is backed by a €51 million budget that extends over an eight year period and includes €13.3 million that France’s Agency for the Environment and Energy Management (ADEME) is providing to Michelin and one other partner, SDTech, as part of the French government’s “Investing in the Future” programme. The project covers all stages of research and development processes, from the definition of scientific concepts to pilot testing and validation on an industrial demonstrator. Michelin says at least one of the project’s outcomes is expected to tie in with the BioButterfly project that began last year.