End-of-Life Tyres (ELTs). update and review by B. Messenger, Editor of Waste Management World (WMW) magazine.

This article was my first choice to introduce readers to the Waste Management World magazine. Indeed it was not so long ago that local authorities here gave echo to their concern on the problems caused by used tyres and their ever increasing stock piles. The full text is given in the reference section. I have made a rapid selection and included all links for rapid reference and indepth lecture and action.

The original title in the Waste Management World magazine is:  TACKLING TYRE WASTE

With the rapidly growing number of vehicles around the world, the disposal of end-of-life tyres is a growing issue. Often simply dumped by the million to pose a serious environmental, health and fire risk, the technology to recover higher value materials and energy from waste tyres is moving forward.

The recovery of energy and materials from used tyres is big business. According to a report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, in 2008 around one billion End-of-Life Tyres (ELTs) were being produced globally each year. A further four billion were estimated to be held in stockpiles and landfills. Around the world it is estimated that some 1.5 billion new tyres are produced annually.

Figures published by the U.S. Rubber Manufacturers Association estimate that the U.S. - the world's largest producer of ELTs - generated 291.8 million tyres in 2009. With an average weight of 33.4 pounds (15.1 kg) that equates to some 4.4 million tonnes. According to statistics published by the European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers' Association (ETRMA), in 2010 Europe produced around 2.7 million tonnes of ELTs.

TRADITIONAL APPROACHES:
Using traditional recycling techniques, granulated rubber recovered from waste tyres can be used variously as an aggregate, in tiles, adhesives, asphalt, sports surfaces, and extruded rubber products, to name but a few of its uses. And in terms of energy recovery the natural rubber fraction of the tyre can be considered as a renewable energy source.


REASONS TO GET MORE TOP CHEMICAL ENGINEERS & MANAGERS INVOLVED. 

With so many ELTs being produced, as well as the huge stockpiles from the past, waste tyres pose many potential dangers. They can contaminate groundwater, harbour disease carrying mosquitoes in pooled water and they are not only flammable, but once ablaze, extremely difficult to extinguish.

Often the result of arson, fires at tyre dumps are not uncommon. In 1990 Hagersville, Ontario was the scene of one of the worst tyre fires in history. As a mechanised army of fire fighters struggled to gain control of the situation, for 17 days 14 million tyres packed onto the 11 acre site spewed toxic clouds of thick black smoke into the air.

According to the New York Times, in addition to the toxic fumes, around 158,000 gallons (600,000 litres) of oil was released by the melting rubber was collected from the site. Chemical pollutants, suspected to have been caused by the operation to extinguish the fire were also found in the aftermath of the blaze.

NB NY Times has many links on the subject of ELT

eg

 2009 Cooking Old Tires With Microwaves

2013  More Traction for Fuel-Efficient Tires

And with a little "lateral" thinking by this blog auther:

2013 Removing the Need to Refill Tires may save compressed air stations by fueling compressed air driven vehicles ( the latter motorisation not entirely condemmed by seminal work by David MacKay FRS: Sustainable Energy - without the hot air: Synopsis

In a separate incident an underground dumpsite in Wales,[UK] thought to contain around 9 million tyres, burned for an astonishing 15 years following its ignition in 1989.

HOPE ON HAND

High Value Alternatives

While the recovery of rubber, steel and energy from a potentially hazardous waste stream is certainly a big improvement over the not too distant past, increasingly a number of projects around the world are looking to ELTs as a potential source of much higher value materials.

One example of this is Dynamic Energy Alliance Corporation (DEAC), which recently relocated its headquarters from Memphis Tennessee to Dallas, Texas. The company has initiated the prototype phase of a project to validate its patent pending technologies to extract high value organic compounds from waste tyres. DEAC's process involves using pyrolysis to process ELTs with the production not only of energy, but of five marketable products – recycled carbon black, pyrolysis oil, fuel and extracts, a high BTU gas and steel.

The process the company is developing melds two technologies that it recently acquired licenses for, the Terpen Kraftig (TKF) Fractionator and Pyrolytic Augmentation.

The Pyrolytic Augmentation technology includes a series of specialised chemical compounds, which when combined within a pyrolysis plant are intended to enable the decomposition of the tyres to occur at lower temperatures - which would be a critical energy-saving benefit.

According to DEAC, a reactor technology included in the license allows it to recover additional high value organic compounds during tyre processing by changing the chemical reaction that's part of the de-vulcanization process used to convert the tyres' rubber into valuable products.

"The intellectual property includes a class of catalysts new to this industry but with exciting potential to improve the economics of waste tyre processing," explains Dr. Earl Beaver, chief technology officer of DEAC.

"The lower temperature enabled through the catalysts should allow for lower energy costs, lower maintenance costs and higher outputs of the most valuable liquid products and carbon black from tyre pyrolysis," he continues.

The TKF Fractionator process will capture the friable materials in the pyrolysis oil and purify them into high value organic compounds used in the fragrance, cosmetic and solvent industries - without disturbing the oil's hydrocarbon market value.

According to the company, the TKF processes, as adapted to its specifications, would produce up to 20 individual components at purity levels that are in high demand.

The process would consist of a series of unit operations functioning at a narrow range of temperatures, pressures, and volumes – which DEAC anticipates to yield the separation needed to maintain the purity and value of the products. Some of the 20 materials would be made in high purity for use as feedstock for downstream products, while others would be synthetic versions of natural products such as flavours, extracts and essential oils.

While the technology is still in the prototype phase, Charles R. Cronin, Jr., DEAC's chairman, is confident: "We believe these combined processes have the potential to produce more energy than the sum of the energy used to make the original tyre plus the energy expended to recover the products. These technologies may have the ability to transform the waste tyre industry from a landfill or rubber products business into a specialty chemical business."

Cronin added that the additional value will soon be validated in a life cycle analysis.(LCA)

The Tygre Project:

is an EU project and consortium involving a number of commercial and academic European organisations

PYReco

Based in Redcar in the North East of England, PYReco is planning a facility which will use pyrolysis to breakdown tyres into high tensile steel, carbon black, diesel oil and syngas without producing any waste.

Conclusions

Ben Messenger, Managing Editor of WMW Magazine concludes: 

"While there are still some concerns surrounding illegal dumping or exporting of ELTs, the high recovery rates both in the U.S. and Europe are encouraging. However, in common with other waste streams, the greatest environmental and economic benefits from the treatment of ELTs lie furthest up the waste hierarchy.

Given the expanding global vehicle base, and the consumable nature of tyres, prevention is probably unattainable. Indeed, for the foreseeable future the number of waste tyres being generated globally will continue to grow. And for passenger car tyres, reuse options, such as retreading, are limited.

While the use of tyres as TDF is certainly better than landfilling or stockpiling, there are many interesting projects on the horizon which offer the potential of recovering not only energy or low value materials, but a wide range of high value materials and energy.

Around the world such projects are numerous. Not all will be commercially successful, but there are simply too many to think that none will make it. The date may not yet have been set, but the way in which waste tyres are treated looks set for a revolution."

READ the full article of 22 April 2013 by Ben Messenger Managing Editor of Waste Management World magazine in WMW magazine (LINK)

New Green Construction Material Innovation_Low energy cement production by Celitement via IOM3: The Global Network for Materials, Minerals & Mining Professionals

"Low energy cement production

Researchers in Germany have developed a high-performance mineral binder, which, they say, can help reduce the energy consumption and CO2 emissions associated with cement production.

Celitement, the material’s trade name, is based on hydraulic calcium hydrosilicates."

Energy Saving

Celitement is made by forming calcium silicate hydrates in a hydrothermal reaction at temperatures between 150 and 200ºC. In a second step the autoclaved material is co-milled with a SiO2-rich material, such as quartz-sand.

‘Production of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) at temperatures of up to 1,450°C is a highly energy-consuming process,’ explains Dr Hanns-Günther Mayer, Managing Director of Celitement, a spin-out of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). ‘In addition, cement plants emit more than two billion tonnes of CO2 annually (2x10^9 tonnes CO2). In comparison to OPC Celitement has the potential to reduce both energy use and CO2 by up to 50%.’

Materials Strength:

 ‘During hydration, Celitement transforms to calcium silicate hydrate gel. This material is the cement hydrate, which defines the mechanical strength and stability of traditional concrete. Thus material properties of test samples made with Celitement, such as strength development and final compressive strength (up to 80 MPa) resemble those of samples made with OPC,’ adds Mayer.

Strength can be regulated by varying the mixing and processingparameters. ‘One big advantage of Celitement is the fact that it can be used just like any other cement.’

 Scale-Up

In spring 2011, a small pilot with a production rate of 100kg/day will start operation at KIT to perform extensive material tests and prepare scale-up.

REFERENCE:

Low energy cement production | IOM3: The Global Network for Materials, Minerals & Mining Professionals

  More on Celitement 

RELATED POSTS:

Materials and Environment-Embodied Energy of Materials

Nanoengineered concrete R & D to cut CO2 emissions (Feb 08, 2008)

WEDGE-A-WAR follows from Theory to Practice (Oct. 18, 2006)

 

LINK to Light emitting diode-LED lighting up-date almost thwarted by Nature. Choose the right bulb.

Like many in this part of the world, I have a sample of all sorts of light sources including my recent change of 4 halogen spots 50W each for 4 LED spots (18 diodes each, power consumption per “spot”= 1W ) almost for the fun, I tell my sceptical or vested interest friends.

Link to full post.

Get your Carbon Sequestration Site on the Map - Reduce GHG emissions, Improve Company-Gov Image, Visibility, ROI...for fun Beat GeoSAT-Ubuki

Industrialists, Governments are you still stalling?

Get your Carbon Sequestration Site on the Map.

Engage in an "Open-Book management approach" to CCS-Carbon Capture and Storage.

Seven Perceived advantages are $, £, €, ¥, ₨, 元 (your choice?):
-Improve your company or government-national image,
-Increased visibility from the growing environmentally conscience internet based society.
-Get on the side of scientifically based ecology and have a positive, caring, increased influence in national, and global issues
-Take a strong marketing position.
-Make "Or-well's " big-brother monitoring "obsolete"(for fun) or more accurately reduced expensive satellites construction and launch, simply to an optimum-a minimun of wise precautionary measures.
In short
-Increase credibility with a badly disallusioned public-voters, smaller share holders, the market.

Did I forget your currency?
As long as it's only money, pick it's symbol here LINK and drop me line.

Industrialists, Governments still stalling? Whatever the reason, get your Carbon Sequestration Site on the Map, thanks to an initiative from The Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage, School of Geo-sciences, University of Edinburgh

The Centre's interactive map shows commercially significant CCS sites (planned or operational) around the globe.

It is designed as an interactive resource for the emerging CCS industry. We invite industry members to locate their relevant site on the google map and feed information into the map as their project progresses.

The SCCS map focuses on proposed full scale or large CCS sites around the world. 'Large' refers to the amount of CO2 that is planned to be injected. Any site planning on injecting over 700,000 tonnes CO2 per year has been included. 700,000 tonnes was picked as an arbitrary amount because of the large number of smaller research/demo plants. The smaller sites are of course significant, and will be added to the google map nearer the time that they go live.


View the SC-CS Map, try-it, learn and engage; register your Carbon Sequestration Site [Link html] .

Recession and The Environment II – Climate Change: Root Causes and Solutions

Confidential.

Here you will find further elements to support the daring- almost presumptuous hypothesis advanced in my previous post "Recession and The Environment I. "

Many of you may have been surprised, as I was myself, (confidentially) by the extent of my uncharacteristic daring leading to the first analysis and opinion, as to the root causes and solutions to the the top "Re-current Affairs" issue of the day: "Economic & Financial Recession" cf. Title above.

Well rather than back-off, I'm sure you will be pleased to read further evidence in support of my previous hypothesis. The urge to further research the issue came rapidly. Evidence came equally rapidly. A couple of Google searches and my experience of good sources turned up a comment on "Recession, Energy <=>Environment, Finite Resources, Climate Change

Contributor whose "alias?" is "MARKANASH" posted this comment 24 Sep 2008, on the Idle Scrawl Paul Mason's blog. Paul is a much travelled Economist and BBC reporter.

Quote:
"You're totally missing one fundamental point. Our present way of life is predicated on using tomorrow's money to pay for what we want today (debt). This in turn relies on endless economic growth. Economic growth on the scale to which we have become accustomed is based almost entirely on cheap energy - stacked and stored in the earth for millions of years and now having been gorged by humans for the past 100 years. The era of cheap energy ends about now; our Energy Return on Energy Invested will drop precipitously in the coming decade or two. No amount of fancy, debt-fuelled financial products, derivatives and systems will operate without reliable (ie cheap energy based) economic growth. The rates of economic growth we've experienced in our lifetimes are about to cease (or at least fall dramatically) as we figure out how to live within our energy means. So, forget trying to put back into its shell the scrambled egg that is now the Anglo-US financial system. Start figuring out how to live without cheap energy and, so, without unsustainable economic growth. I don't have the answers, but I do know that the transition from us relying on cheap (borrowed) energy to a lifestyle based on the sustainable use of real-time energy is going to be painful. Bankers and financiers have yet to see the problem, let alone figure out solutions. "


My rapid search turned-up complimentary evidence in support of MARKANASH's blunt opinion on bankers and financiers:

There is a very commonly held view and justifiable public outcry on executive remuneration packages-here "Top B's" B short for merchant bankers - and their followers. This is put forward by many as a leading root cause of the present predicament. Here I contend that this fits the "irresponsibility theme" under pinning Pacala's heart felt analyis and disgust, which I share to a large extent and amplify, need I add. (cf. my previous post).

One of my "hero's-mentors", here in France, is Jean Francois Kahn, JFK to the intimates, we have met a couple of times - no kidding. JFK, as he has done for several years now, again lashes out at the irresponsible discrepancy between Top Dog remuneration packages and results, and also to their collective disconnection or memory loss from common reality.
JFK has a very imagery way of situating the levels of such packages. He compares the the top Dog Salaries & remuneration packages to the number of centuries the common worker on minimum wage would need to work. Yes it runs into centuries! From memory this tallies up to something like from the 6th century to the present day (15 centuries)!!!

In the current case he considers that Bankers morality - professional ethics (responsibility) is strongly questionable and a major contributing factor to the current financial crisis and recession. He remarks that the president of Lehmans Bros helped himself to 23M$ salary or package last year while in the same year he recommended that the US admin. refuse a 5M$ budget to help under-privileged - the dirt poor US citizens. This is just one example of many. Kahn calling "a spade a spade" frankly considers this behaviour to be totally immoral, and who can disagree? I wonder how much fresh cash this approach may generate?

Here rests the case for the prosecution!

Source: Paul Mason's blog post "We are not doomed: Discuss" which started the debate among his contributors, eg. "markanash" quoted above amoung others. Paul supplies links to short summaries of underlying economic theory. It's a quick read & well worth a squint which is all the reading necessary - He defends the system concluding: "In short I propose what could come out of this is a highly regulated and more stable info-capitalism." Wonder why it did not come before? Then my experience comes from ... partly through Aeronautic & Nuclear Materials Quality Control, Assurance Standards & Stringent Clients Requirements - no kidding there, at least in the West. No wonder students flee the exigence of science and engineering!