FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta—Titan International Inc.'s Titan Tire Reclamation Corp. subsidiary has begun operating at its Fort McMurray location in the Canadian oil sands and disclosed plans to open a second site in Alberta and similar facilities in Australia and Chile.
TTRC uses thermal reactors to transform scrapped mining tires into oil, steel and carbon black, providing a solution to one of the biggest environmental problems these mines face. Until now, recycling scrap industrial mining tires was not possible because of their size and density, Titan said.
TTRC's process originally was developed by a company called Green Carbon L.L.C., whose top executive is Fred Taylor, brother of Titan Chairman and CEO Maurice "Morry" Taylor Jr. Titan has been working on the site since mid-2014.
The Green Carbon system uses 75 percent of gas from tires in a special reactor, Titan said. Each 59.00R63 tire produces approximately 500 gallons of oil, 4,000 pounds of carbon black and 2,000 pounds of steel.
Titan has invested $30 million so far in the venture. Titan partnered with ACDEN (part of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation), former Duke Energy Corp. President Paul Newton, Green Carbon and Suncor Energy Inc. to bring this to the oil sands.
Titan owns 60 percent of the venture, with the remaining 40 percent by ACDEN, Green Carbon and Newton.
At full production, Titan estimates TTRC will be capable of converting 240,000 pounds of scrap tires a day into approximately 13,600 gallons of oil, 52,800 pounds of steel and 76,800 pounds of carbon black.
These recycled items will be placed back into new products. The system uses 85 percent of the gas it generates to heat up the vessel containing the scrap tires.