Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • European Rubber Journal
  • Plastics News
  • Tire Business
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Best Places to Work
    • Rubber Division IEC
    • War in Ukraine
    • Automotive
    • Tire
    • Non-Tire
    • Suppliers
    • ITEC
    • Silicone
    • Online Exclusive
    • Latex
    • Technical Notebooks
    • Executive Action
    • Government/Legal
    • Opinion
    • Blogs
    • Sustainability
    • Products
    • Wacky World of Rubber
  • Airless Tires
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
  • Resources
    • Directory
    • Classifieds & Mold Mart
  • Data
  • Events
    • RN Events
    • RN Livestreams/Webinars
    • Industry Events
    • Past Events
    • Rubber News M&A Live
    • Ask the Expert
    • Healthcare Elastomers Conference
    • Rubber In Automotive Conference
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Advertise
  • DIGITAL EDITION
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
November 16, 2016 01:00 AM

Companies focus on technology at symposium

Miles Moore
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario—Pyrolysis and devulcanization—two technologies that rubber recyclers have striven to make commercially viable for decades—were major topics at the 2016 Rubber Recycling Symposium held in Niagara Falls Oct. 5-7.

    Executives of several recycling companies discussed their firms' proprietary technologies at the conference, telling the audience that significant advances in pyrolysis and devulcanization technology have made their companies into reliable producers of high-quality recycled products.

    The theme of the conference was “Driving Towards the Circular Economy,” and the recycling executives said their technologies would help manufacturers and government officials achieve their goal of converting waste tires into value-added new products.

    Eliot Sorella, chairman and CEO of Ecolomondo Corp. Inc., said his company has spent more than 25 years and more than $30 million Canadian developing its thermal decomposition process.

    Ecolomondo has dedicated technical teams who have overcome critical operational challenges to offer customers a sustainable way of recycling hydrocarbon waste into high-quality, ready-for-use recovered resources, according to Sorella.

    Unlike many competing technologies, Economondo has achieved industrial-scale output and can deliver consistent products that meet custom specifications, he said.

    Achieving a circular economy worldwide has become crucial, according to Sorella.

    Miles Moore, Rubber & Plastics News

    Sam Visaisouk

    “Today, 1.3 billion tons of solid waste are generated per year globally,” he said. “In spite of recycling efforts such as zero waste programs, solid waste is expected to increase to 2.2 billion tons per year by 2025.

    “Even though some countries have begun to divert certain waste streams to recycling, waste disposal by burning and landfilling are extremely widespread,” Sorella said. “It is time to move forward and stop these practices altogether.”

    Stakeholders need to play role

    Business, government and the public all have a role in promoting the circular economy, according to Sorella.

    “It is necessary for big business to get involved and take the lead,” he said. “After all, it has the most to lose if the circular economy fails.”

    Big business has the ability to influence upstream decisions, such as whether to use recycled materials in manufacturing their products, Sorella said. Small and medium-sized businesses, just because of their number, also can play a major role in promoting recycled materials, he said.

    Government must support waste-to-resources technology by making subsidies, grants, financing and comprehensive programs available to them, Sorella said.

    The public, meanwhile, must show it supports recycling programs by accepting tipping and environmental fees and giving preference to consumer products manufactured with recycled materials, he said.

    “They must make recycling part of their everyday lives,” he said.

    The benefits of a circular economic model are obvious everywhere, according to Sorella.

    “Nature is circular in itself,” he said. “It reinvents and repeats itself, season after season.

    “Similar to nature, the circular economy will ensure its own sustainability,” Sorella said. “Recycling waste over and over will achieve that goal and evolve into a permanent solution.”

    Among the other speakers at the Rubber Recycling Conference were Sam Visaisouk, CEO of Tyromer Inc., and Graham Choonoo, technical director at AirBoss Rubber Compounding Inc.

    Miles Moore, Rubber & Plastics News

    Graham Choonoo

    Visaisouk and Choonoo spoke of the collaboration between Tyromer and AirBoss in attempting to commercialize the devulcanization process created by Prof. Costas Tzoganakis of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Ontario.

    Tyromer opened a plant at AirBoss' facility in Kitchener, Ontario, in September 2015, dedicated to the production of Tyromer-TDP, a devulcanized rubber product made using Tzoganakis' technology.

    Devulcanization is a crucial technology in developing a circular economy for tires, according to Visaisouk.

    “Fifty percent of the world's rubber goes into tires, and yet only a very small quantity of end-of-life tires make it back into new tire production,” he said.

    Devulcanization is a very different process from rubber reclaiming, Visaisouk said. Devulcanization seeks only to break the sulfur bonds of vulcanization in rubber, whereas reclaiming destroys polymeric links as well.

    “Reclaimed rubber is degraded and cannot be used as tire rubber,” he said. “Reclaiming is down-cycling.”

    China is the world's largest market for reclaimed rubber, producing about 4.5 million metric tons annually. The Chinese government encourages reclaim production through tax incentives and other market intervention, according to Visaisouk.

    On the other hand, reclaimed rubber is virtually unknown in the U.S., whereas 48.6 percent of U.S. scrap tires go to tire-derived fuel, he said.

    “China does not have a scrap tire problem but pays a high environmental price,” Visaisouk said. “We do not have a scrap tire problem if, as a society, we accept burning 50 percent.

    “The sheer volume of scrap tires dictates that any effort to recycle scrap tire rubber must target the tire industry,” he said.

    MIles Moore, Rubber & Plastics News

    Eliot Sorella

    Devulcanization vs. reclaiming

    However, tire industry veterans tend to confuse devulcanization with reclaiming, and also remember all the previous devulcanization projects that failed, according to Visaisouk.

    “There is a high degree of skepticism among rubber veterans,” he said. “Their usual reaction is, "Heard it, never seen it, won't work.' Introducing another rubber devulcanization technology becomes a venture that begins at below ground zero.”

    However, the Tzoganakis devulcanization method does not use any chemicals, which tend to break polymer chains as well as sulfur chains, Visaisouk said.

    The Tzoganakis method uses inert supercritical carbon dioxide to expand the crosslinked rubber network rapidly, followed by controlled mechanical shear in an extruder to preferentially break the sulfur links over the rubber network bonds, he said.

    AirBoss' tests on Tyromer TDP show the material disperses better in off-the-road tire compounds than crumb rubber and has much less effect on the Mooney viscosity and other physical properties of OTR tire compounds than treated crumb or reclaim, Choonoo said.

    Tyromer TDP also revulcanizes well, depending on crumb source, rubber mixing sequence, loading level and compound polymer type, he said.

    “No matter what, we have achieved fairly consistent physical property results,” he said. “Using any rubber recycled material is never easy and presents certain challenges. But we are selling Tyromer TDP to OTR customers today.”

    The next challenges for Tyromer and AirBoss, according to Choonoo, are:

    • Increasing the percentage of TDP used in NR3p.595-based OTR recipes;
    • Expanding TDP into other NR applications; and
    • Devulcanizing other elastomers, including SBR, EPDM and NR from non-TDP sources.
    Related Articles
    California Assembly rejects tire recycling bill
    RMA exec: More scrap tires likely
    California gives tax breaks to recycling businesses
    Technical Rubber buys Italian retread, recycling supplier
    Organizations eye recycling market growth
    Tire stewardship program changes in works
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Rubber News wants to hear from its readers. If you want to express your opinion on a story or issue, email your letter to Editor Bruce Meyer at [email protected].

    Most Popular
    1
    EV owners: OE tires falling drastically short of treadwear expectations
    2
    Wacker gets bullish on China with $100 million investment
    3
    80 years later, PPG silicas still driving tire performance
    4
    Canada funding efforts to cut tire-wear particle pollution
    5
    Rubber futures close low as demand in China slows
    SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Rubber News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe Today

    Subscribe to Rubber News to get the best coverage and leading insights in the industry.

    SUBSCRIBE
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter

    MISSION

    To serve companies in the global rubber product industry by delivering news, industry insights, opinions and technical information.

    Contact Us

    2291 Riverfront Pkwy, Suite 1000
    Cuyahoga Falls,
    OH 44221

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1726

    Resources
    • About Us
    • Digital Edition
    • Staff
    • Advertise
    • Order Reprints
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    • Terms of Service
    • Careers
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Partner Sites
    • Tire Business
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Automotive News
    • Crain Brands
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Best Places to Work
      • Rubber Division IEC
      • War in Ukraine
      • Automotive
      • Tire
      • Non-Tire
      • Suppliers
      • ITEC
      • Silicone
      • Online Exclusive
      • Latex
      • Technical Notebooks
      • Executive Action
      • Government/Legal
      • Opinion
      • Blogs
        • Products
        • Wacky World of Rubber
      • Sustainability
    • Airless Tires
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
    • Resources
      • Directory
      • Classifieds & Mold Mart
    • Data
    • Events
      • RN Events
        • Healthcare Elastomers Conference
        • Rubber In Automotive Conference
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • RN Livestreams/Webinars
      • Industry Events
      • Past Events
      • Rubber News M&A Live
      • Ask the Expert
    • Advertise
    • DIGITAL EDITION