A little over a year after first selecting a site near Germany’s border with Luxembourg for its second wholly owned waste tyre pyrolysis facility, Pyrum Innovations AG has progressed plans further by submitting approval documents relevant to Germany’s Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG).
With the installation of a new milling line at its Hawkesbury site in Canada, Ecolomondo Corporation will have the capacity to mill an additional tonne or so (2,200 lbs) of recovered carbon black (rCB) hourly. This milling line replaces a previously installed line which failed to achieve the promised output of 725 kg (1,600 lbs) per hour of rCB and additionally didn’t yield the particle size of 10-15 microns required by many Ecolomondo rCB off-takers.
There’s no doubt that tyre makers are finding sustainable raw materials increasingly attractive, but the road to monetising such a product can be long and frustrating. Pyrum Innovations has been actively developing its thermolysis technology for 16 years now, and during this time attracted the attention and favour of major tyre industry players. This hasn’t prevented the Dillingen, Germany-based company from posting another net loss in the first nine months of 2024.
Following an audit, Continental has given Pyrum Innovations unlimited delivery approval for recovered carbon black (rCB) supplied from its pyrolysis plant in Dillingen/Saar, Germany. Pyrum CEO Pascal Klein views this authorisation as “the cornerstone for a significant increase in sales next year.”
It may be behind schedule, but Bolder Industries is pressing ahead with plans to set up a pyrolysis facility in Antwerp for obtaining raw materials from end-of-life-tyres, and its efforts have been given a boost in the form of a 32 million euro grant by the European Commission through the EU Innovation Fund pilot programme. This is further supplemented by a 2 million euro grant from Belgium’s Flanders region. The funding will enable the construction of Bolder’s European facility at the Port of Antwerp, a plant capable of recycling over four million end-of-life tyres annually.
Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro) CEO Fredrik Emilson is participating in a keynote CEO panel arranged during the first day of the Recovered Carbon Black conference as well as at a special networking lunch that Enviro is hosting and where chairman Alf Blomqvist will also be present. The Recovered Carbon Black conference takes place between November 5 and 6.
Contec S.A. reports that it has completed its third and fourth pyrolysis lines. The new lines, which are already operational, are set to “triple…production capacity over the coming year”.
Japanese general trading company Marubeni Corporation has announced its investment in Thailand-based waste tyre pyrolysis recycler Green Rubber Energy Company Limited (GRE). By investing in this venture, Marubeni intends to establish a tyre recycling supply chain in Thailand that encompasses the collection of end-of-life tyres and the production and sale of recycled materials such as recovered carbon black and tyre pyrolysis oil. Marubeni has not disclosed the size of its investment in GRE.
Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro) has announced a significant achievement in its joint venture project with the receipt of SEK 25.6 million (£1.9 million) as compensation for meeting a predefined milestone linked to the construction of its recycling plant in Uddevalla, Sweden. This compensation, which comprises equal parts cash and shares in the joint venture company, marks the first of several planned disbursements tied to the project’s progress. Enviro has also published its financial results for H1 2024.
Continental is planning to boost the recycled content in its tyres after it signed a new decade-long purchase agreement with Pyrum Innovations. Pyrum specialises in thermolysis technology in end-of-life tyres (ELT), generating high-quality recovered carbon black (rCB). Conti said it signed the new supply deal to fulfil its intention to use rCB in the series production of passenger car tyres in the future. Conti had already signed a development agreement with Pyrum Innovations in 2022, after which the companies shared the goal of optimising and expanding ELT recycling with pyrolysis.
ASTM International’s recovered carbon black (rCB) committee (D36) is developing a proposed standard that will guide users of rCB on how long the material can be stored and the effect that prolonged storage might have on rCB.
LD Carbon has closed a $28 million Series C funding round led by Toyota’s growth fund, Woven Capital, with participation by Meritz Securities, Investwith, Industrial Bank of Korea, Hyundai Motor Group ZER01NE, Elohim Partners and New Main Capital. LD Carbon will use the investment to scale operations to recycle end-of-life tyres and material from end-of-life vehicles into recovered carbon black and pyrolysis oil through pyrolysis and material recovery technology. From here, the aim is to use the recovered materials to create new automotive parts and tyres. According to the company, “the investment will advance LD Carbon’s mission of accelerating the circular economy while delivering material cost and carbon savings to global customers”.
Circtec, a specialist in pyrolysis technology for sustainable end-of-life tyre recycling, has secured €150 million in a recent financing round. Novo Holdings and A.P. Moller Holding spearheaded this initiative with a €75 million equity investment. The financing also includes €22.5 million in grants awarded by the Government of the Netherlands.
Pyrolysis-based recycling specialist Pyrum Innovations AG (Pyrum) has released its annual and consolidated financial statements for the 2023 financial year, along with an update on the company’s progress in supply of recovered end-of-life tyre products to the tyre industry. CEO Pascal Klein commented that another eventful year lies behind the company.
Within the framework of an eight-year offtake agreement, UK-based tyre pyrolysis specialist Circtec will annually supply energy company bp with up to 75,000 tonnes of fuel and feedstock recovered from end-of-life tyres. Circtec will process these tyres at a plant it will set up in The Netherlands. In support of this offtake agreement, bp is providing Circtec a €12.5 million debt finance facility to contribute to the capex for expanding this plant into a commercial-scale operation.
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