Technical Notebook: New approach to circular economy for tires

Tire conversion technologies can be attributed to three generations.

Generation 1 mostly was extracting oil from tires. Generation 2 focuses on recovery of carbon black (rCB). And the future Generation 3 recovers and upgrades carbon black.

Multiple publications suggest that Generation 2 (i.e. pyrolysis, carbon black) at best is able to exhibit semi-reinforcing in-rubber behavior because it consists of a mix of various grades of carbon black used in different parts of tires, with inorganic impurities and carbonaceous residue, while demonstrating reinforcement level colloidal properties (i.e. “in-rubber performance shift”).

G3C technology, a representative of Generation 3, is upgrading rCB and offsetting detrimental effects of “in- rubber performance shift.” The G3C process can produce reinforcing rCB and reduce PAH contents to acceptable levels.