Pyrum Innovations, Siemens begin technology partnership

Through a new partnership agreement with the Siemens technology group, Pyrum Innovations AG anticipates the further promotion, optimisation and scaling of its pyrolysis plants for processing end-of-life tyres (ELT). Pyrum will utilise technology from Siemens’ digitalisation and automation portfolios, with Siemens supporting Pyrum and its customers in the selection of optimal process automation, process analytics, drive and digitalisation technologies, amongst other things.

In addition, Siemens will help with the optimisation of process procedures as well as with training and further education, for example by jointly organising workshops and training sessions. The partners plan to start implementing the various measures immediately.

Partnership makes pyrolysis more attractive

This is Pyrum’s third agreement with a well-known German industrial giant following its partnerships with BASF and Continental. In addition, the pyrolysis specialist is engaged in cooperative agreements with a number of companies, including Michelin, Pirelli, Schwalbe and Eldan.

“We are constantly trying to develop our pyrolysis plants and increase both productivity and user-friendliness in order to continue to provide the best offer on the market,” states Pascal Klein, chief executive officer of Pyrum Innovations AG. “We are convinced that our partnership with Siemens will make our pyrolysis plants even more attractive to existing and potential customers. In doing so, we are driven by the long-term goal of achieving a circular economy in ELT recycling as soon as possible.”

BlackCycle: 60,000 litres of pyrolysis oil

News of Pyrum’s partnership with Siemens comes just weeks after the European Union’s BlackCycle project reached a new milestone. On 24 May, the BlackCycle protagonists successfully completed a series of trials to extensively research various process conditions related to the composition of ELT, examining temperature profile and residence time on a laboratory scale. After determining the optimal reaction parameters, researchers conducted several industrial-scale experiments which concluded in the production of 60,000 litres of optimised pyrolysis oil. They sent the oil to Spanish project partner Sisener Ingenieros SL.

The next step is for Sisener Ingenieros to distil the oil. It will then be processed into sustainable carbon black (sCB) by Orion Engineered Carbons and given to Michelin, who will use the sCB in its tyre production. Pyrum says sCB has “identical characteristics” to conventional carbon black of the same quality, with the significant difference that it is produced from a sustainable secondary raw material.

Pyrum states that prior industrial-scale experiments with its standard pyrolysis oil delivered excellent results. Declaring that “the suitability of the product for the complete substitution of fossil raw materials is thus impressively demonstrated,” the company comments that it is now “eagerly waiting to see what results the optimised product will deliver.”