According to Tim Rose, Managing Director of Australia’s Southern Oil, old tyres are a preferable source of bio-oil feedstock compared to traditional biofuels from plants.
Tyres Seen by Southern Oil as More Sustainable Source of Bio-Oil
He says that this is because they are in plentiful supply all-year round, can be refined very easily and would reduce Australia’s dependence on imported fuel and the process turns an environmental waste problem into a valuable raw material.
Mr Rose said: “The first ‘trickle’ of oil is now being provided to us from the Green Distillation Technologies tyre recycling plant.
“We have found that the oil they are providing is quite easy to convert to diesel fuel as the main refining step we have to make is the removal of the sulphur. In time, it could become a suitable feedstock for automotive fuel and even aviation fuel.”
Southern Oil is currently building an advanced $16 million (£12.17m) biofuels plant in Queensland.
Green Distillation Technologies (GDT) uses ‘destructive distillation’ technology to recycle each old car tyre into 4kg of carbon, 1.5kg of steel and four litres of oil.
