How Tire Recycling Works at Contec: The Contec Monthly #23

Welcome to the Contec Monthly, a newsletter published on LinkedIn for the greater tire recycling community. We feature blog articles on circularity in tire manufacturing, trending industry news, and more.

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In this edition, we cover our tire recycling and end-of-life tire (ELTs) preparation for the pyrolysis process.

Contec approaches this crucial step with thoroughness and detailed process management, which are important pieces to help ensure high-quality recovered Carbon Black (rCB) for low-carbon footprint products.

How Are Our ELTs Prepared For Pyrolysis? ??

Ensuring high-quality rCB feedstock begins with the sourced ELTs, where Contec hand-picks the most suitable tires.

Let's unfold the tire recycling magic from the moment our suppliers unload the old tires onto the conveyor belt and into our processing plant.

Discover the first phase where ELTs begin their new life as ConPyro, ConBlack, and ConWire products.??

Step 1: The ELTs start their shredding journey in the Primary Shredder, which preliminary cuts the tires into smaller elements called shreds. At this stage, the steel cord remains in the tire pieces to reduce corrosion and increase quality.

Step 2: Rubber shreds leave the Primary Shredder on the unloading belt conveyor, where the feeder directs them to the Star Screen. Here, the rubber shreds are separated into larger and smaller shreds. Larger shreds that didn’t pass the test are returned to the Primary Shredder.

Step 3: Rubber shreds smaller than 150 x 150 mm are transported by conveyor to the 'Liberator', the Main Shredder. Here, the previously prepared rubber shreds are processed into rubber granulate. The process allows the size of the rubber granulate to be below 25mm!

Step 4: A mixture of rubber granulate and steel cord leaves the Main Shredder, evenly distributed to ensure the effective operation of the magnetic separator. Better separation helps to ensure better quality output in pyrolysis!

Step 5: Virtually steel-free, the rubber granulate leaves the magnetic separator and enters a below conveyor, completing the shredding process, which is essential before the rubber granulate enters pyrolysis.

And then, the real magic of pyrolysis begins. ?? ?

Contec's Lead Engineer Explains the Tire Selection Process ??

Creating a detailed system workflow for tire recycling before it enters pyrolysis is crucial for several reasons.

This systematic approach ensures that every step of the process is meticulously planned and executed, leading to improved efficiency, safety, and quality of the final products.

Mateusz Krawczak, Lead Process Engineer at Contec, plays a pivotal role in developing and overseeing the detailed system workflow for tire recycling. With his extensive expertise and meticulous approach, Mateusz ensures that every phase of the recycling process is optimised for maximum efficiency and quality.

'At Contec, we currently segregate tires into passenger car and truck tires, following guidelines published by the Bridgestone & Michelin collaboration,' he explains. This is to put together tires with similar ash content.

Different tires have different ash contents and even different structures. Some tires, for example, have silica content in their tread or sidewalls. It's one of the reasons this step is crucial when shredding tires mechanically.

'Firstly, mechanical tire shredding already allows the steel and textile cord to be separated from the rubber before pyrolysis. As a result, the pyrolysis process takes place more smoothly due to the shredded material,' he says. 'In addition, the rCB produced is immediately free of unnecessary impurities, improving the rCB quality'— where quality excellence is a core value at our company.

Any questions about how we process our ELTs? Leave those questions below in the comments, and learn more about our recovered Steel, ConWire?, on our website.

The Latest News in Circular Manufacturing ??

Several times a month, we publish three trending articles about the circular economy in our industry. Don’t miss what was published in the last month:

1. Week of June 7th
2. Week of May 24th

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this newsletter, please consider sharing it with your friends and colleagues in the tire recycling industry.