Germany alone
produces about 630,000 tons of waste tires per year. The EU produces 3.2
million tons, and the US a total of 4.4 million. Even in the EU, no less than
4% ends up on a landfill, and 50% is burned in furnaces in the cement industry.
Another major percentage is ground into granules and rubber flour to be used in
road surfaces and sports floorings. The ecological and economic reutilization
results are significantly below the value of the bound raw materials.Pigment Carbon Black
Waste-tire granules: an
unrecovered treasure
In addition to oil
and gas, rubber granules contain the high-tech material carbon black. Carbon
black serves as a basic material for many industry sectors – for the production
of dyes, tires, rubber, as well as plastic. This makes carbon black an
important commodity for which demand is steadily increasing: experts are
predicting an annual market growth of at least 4%. For 2011 alone they are
expecting a global need totaling 11 million tons.
A method for
recovering the raw materials used from waste-tire granules for the first time
closes the resource cycle in tire production: the recovered carbon black is fed
back into the production process with only minor losses. This
significantly reduces the need for new crude oil and natural gas. Thus, tire
manufacturers are less dependent on fossil fuels and the price volatilities of
the commodities markets associated with them. As a consequence, purchase costs
for carbon black and hence for the entire tire production decline considerably. Carbon Black N330
Global market for
carbon black