Energy Recovery from Scrap Tires

Energy Recovery from Scrap Tires

Including car, truck, bus, and airplane tires, close to six billion tons of tires were scrapped in the US in 2022 (Scrap Tire Management Council (STMC)). More than three-quarters of these tires were used as fuel, recycled for material applications, or exported.

The remainder accumulates in junkyards or landfills where they pose a fire hazard and provide a breeding ground for disease-carrying rodents and insects. Tires can be used as fuel either in shredded form (Tire Derived Fuel (TDF)) or whole, depending on the type of combustion furnace.
The Scrap Tire Management Council reports that over 34% of scrap tires in the US were used as fuel in 2022. Statistics often ignore the energy required for size reduction of tire scrap, but still, using a typical value for the recoverable energy value from tires as 32 MJ/kg, about 37% of the energy embedded in a new manufactured rubber tire is recoverable as energy.

From an energy point of view, it is preferable to recycle rubber as rubber than to use it as a fuel. The best technologies are felt to include:

  1. Rubber recoveries
  2. Recovered rubber de-vulcanization
  3. Devulcanized rubber compounding
  4. Manufacturing