Farrel Pomini invests in WF Recycle-Tech

ANSONIA, Conn.—Mixing technology and compounding systems specialist Farrel Pomini is investing in WF Recycle-Tech, a Surrey, England-based company with a patented pyrolysis system for recycling end-of-life tires.

"We have made a financial investment to support WF Recycle-Tech in their transition from concept to production in return for a percentage of ownership," said Paul Lloyd, vice president and business director of Farrel Pomini, which is part of the HF Mixing Group.

He added that Ansonia-based Farrel Pomini will support the WF Recycle-Tech team with management assistance, as well as engineering and supply chain expertise.

"We have assisted them with both engineering advice and the creation of a pilot plant in the (United Kingdom)," Lloyd said. "We believe there are great synergies between us as we provide the production reliability and manufacturing experience WF Recycle-Tech requires for the next stage of development."

The development and pilot plant is available in the U.K., with some usage restrictions, Lloyd said. The companies expect to deliver production units in 2022.

"An ability to link WF Recycle-Tech to our customers in a way that assures the support and performance of the technology will also be beneficial," Lloyd said, adding that the patented development always has included a Farrel Pomini continuous mixer as an integral part of the system, with Farrel Pomini as the originator of that technology.

Both Farrel Pomini and HF Mixing Group, its parent company, are working on various projects to enhance sustainable solutions in areas that include process optimization and energy savings for equipment, as well as developing process capabilities for processing recycled materials and biopolymers.

The company's investment in WF Recycle-Tech is one piece of that initiative.

"Farrel Pomini has been increasingly involved in sustainably based products in our current market sectors within the plastics industry," Lloyd said.

"End-of-life tire recycling equipment allows us to continue in this direction and support a very significant sector of our parent company, HF Mixing Group. With this technology, we will provide a feasible and viable solution to end-of-life tires and with it, assist in the increased responsibilities faced by our customers in the tire sector."

The partnership between Farrel Pomini and WF Recycle-Tech was made official in February and provides an entry into the end-of-life tire recycling equipment market for Farrel Pomini. The partnership allows WF Recycle-Tech to leverage the strength of Farrel Continuous Mixing Technology and its engineering and manufacturing capabilities to create a solid platform within the pyrolysis sector.

"As a global supplier of equipment to the tire and technical rubber industries, these innovations will help drive the closing of the tire recycling loop and improve sustainability across several of our business sectors and lead to more environmentally neutral solutions," Ian Wilson, HF Mixing Group co-CEO, said in a statement.

Farrel Pomini chose to invest in WF Recycle-Tech because the two companies already had a working relationship. They have engaged in a long-term development project and have been working together since 2013, the year the Surrey-based company was formed.

WF Recycle-Tech's pyrolysis methods differ from other options in the market today, according to Farrel Pomini. The process, using heat in the absence of oxygen, transforms crumb rubber into oil, gas and recovered carbon black.

"The WF Recycle-Tech system is a compact, two-stage pyrolysis system and practical to install in proximity to tire collection facilities rather than a large-scale plant that requires additional tire transport," Lloyd said.

"The production rate is 1,500 kilograms per hour. In addition, the patented two-stage system allows control over the processing and residence time, which allows manipulation of the outputs. The testing done to date proves that the WF Recycle-Tech system generates an (rCB) product that has a significant opportunity to add value."

Currently, the research and development team at Farrel Pomini is working to optimize compounding applications utilizing recovered carbon black to offer customers support with processing materials to provide a more sustainable solution to their compounding needs.

"The recovered carbon black, which is 40 percent of the output, can be used in plastic masterbatches," Lloyd said. "We have successfully blown films from such a masterbatch in our Farrel Pomini demonstration facility in the U.K. Our research and development team is working on enhanced production methods for processing rCB on our continuous mixer and compact processor equipment."

HF Mixing Group was created in 2010 with the combination of Harburg-Freudenberger, Farrel and Pomini Rubber & Plastics, three equipment makers serving the rubber industry. Both Farrel and Pomini already were owned by Harburg-Freudenberger when the unification took place.

Offerings for the tire and rubber industries include mixers, automation, cutting equipment, downstream equipment and mixing room technology. Mixer brands include Banbury, Intermix, Tandem and Umix, the company said. In the U.S., along with the Farrel Pomini site in Connecticut, the company also owns Mesabi Control Engineering of Oakdale, Minn., and HF Rubber Machinery Inc.–USA in Topeka, Kan.