Tyre Derived Fuel reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Australia

A new report prepared for Australian Tyre Recyclers Association (ATRA), “Carbon Value Proposition, Resource Recovery using Tyre Derived Fuels”, states that replacing one tonne of black coal with one tonne of TDF can save emissions of up to 1.05 tonnes of CO2-e into the atmosphere.

“This is good news for the environment when you consider the majority of used passenger and truck tyres in Australia are converted into a TDF and exported to high-end industrial facilities such as cement kilns and paper manufacturing plants in Japan and South Korea,” says ATRA Executive Officer Robert Kelman, adding:

“We could be using this fuel here and banking the greenhouse gas savings in Australia, after all there is no shortage of used passenger and truck tyres. The extremely high calorific value of TDF, makes it an attractive alternative fuel on an international scale and may ultimately be eligible domestically for energy efficiency or low emission credits”.

“Tyre-derived fuels address a challenging waste problem as well as providing a low carbon fuel at a cheaper rate than coal, even in Australia,” Jim Fairweather, CEO of Australia’s leading tyre recycler, Tyrecycle observed, continuing: “ATRA members export around 145,000 tonnes of TDF per year, which could increase further if a domestic market was established and greater access was given to tyres on mining sites and other tyre stockpiles”.

ATRA members are responsible for 95 per cent of Australia’s used tyre recycling activity, also producing rubber crumb for sports fields, soft fall playgrounds, adhesives, rubber matting and civil construction applications. Each year, 23 million of approximately 50 million end-of-life tyre units in Australia are made available for recycling. ATRA members recycle approximately 20.5 million of these annually. The remainder are generally stockpiled or exported as whole baled tyres, causing biosecurity and environmental risks for receiving countries. End-of-life mine tyres are almost universally buried onsite.

You can read the full report here: TDF report full.