Waste-Tire-to-Energy — An Advancement

We’ve been hearing about various processes for converting waste-tires to energy, fuels, and other valuable stuff (e.g., carbon black) for decades now.  And yes, there really are a few people with pyrolysis technology that really works; my friends from the Ukraine have equipment that’s been running 24/7 for the last three years.  Having said this, we need to be frank: there are also many hundreds of others who, let’s just say, “make exaggerated claims.” 

Part of the challenge is feedstock: sure, there are an incremental 300 million tires that come to the end of their lives each year in the U.S. alone and, historically, have gone off to clog up our landfills.  But how efficient is the process of gathering the tires and shipping them to a facility?  How much of this waste stream can any individual group control?  As a friend of mine says, “He who controls the tires owns this whole industry.”  Certainly true.

Early in the day, I was introduced to Tire Tran, which sounds like a terrific idea — one that can easily be made even better by replacing manual processes with robotics.  If you’re in the business, I hope you’ll check out the video I’ve linked here. If you want one, please let me know; I’m a sales agent for the company.