Transforming tyres into circular chemicals and fuels

This recycling process turns tyres into marine fuel, chemicals, and carbon black

Spotted: According to a 2021 research article, one billion end-of-life tyres are thrown away every year, representing more than two per cent of all the solid waste generated globally.

Startup Circtec is tackling this with a proprietary process that converts waste tyres into sustainable chemicals and marine fuel. The company’s technology uses pyrolysis, (a process involving thermal decomposition in an oxygen-free environment) to turn old tyres into a variety of new materials.

The company’s circular process generates: a sustainable marine fuel (HUPA); naphtha for use in plastic, polymer, and chemical manufacturing; and high-quality carbon black for use in tyre, rubber, and plastics manufacturing. Circtec also powers its plant operations from recovered heat and the gases produced in its process, avoiding the need for fossil fuels, and this integrated, circular approach to energy efficiency helps the company keep levels of CO2 emissions very low.

Circtec has recently completed a €150 million funding round, which included a €75 million equity investment from Novo Holdings and A.P. Moller Holding. The funding will be used to construct Europe’s largest end-of-life tyre pyrolysis recycling facility in Delfzijl, the Netherlands.

Pieter ter Haar, Circtec’s Director R&D told Springwise that the company “will be fully focused on executing the build of our flagship facility in the Netherlands and will be exploring our expansion plans.” When complete, Circtec’s facility will be able to recycle around five per cent of the end-of-life tyres generated annually in Europe.

Written By: Lisa Magloff