Interim goal of the BlackCycle project achieved: pyrolysis optimisation completed
Pyrum Innovations AG reports further progress in the European Union’s BlackCycle project
On 24 May 2022, the successful completion of the trial campaign was celebrated. In this campaign, various process conditions regarding the composition of ELT, the temperature profile and the residence time were first extensively researched on a laboratory scale.
After successful determination of the optimal reaction parameters, several experimental campaigns on an industrial scale followed. The conclusion was the production of 60,000 litres of optimised pyrolysis oil, which reached the Spanish project partner Sisener Ingenieros SL on 24 May 2022.
The next step there is the distillation of the oil, which is then processed by Orion Engineered Carbons into sustainable Carbon Black (sCB) and used by Michelin in new tyres.
The sCB has identical characteristics to conventional carbon black of the same quality, with the significant difference that it is produced from a sustainable secondary raw material. In past experiments on an industrial scale with Pyrum’s standard pyrolysis oil, excellent results have already been achieved. The suitability of the product for the complete substitution of fossil raw materials is thus impressively demonstrated. The company is now keen to see what results the optimised product will deliver.
The BlackCycle project, which was launched in May 2020 and will run until the end of August 2023, is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. As part of the project, 13 companies from five EU countries are researching a sustainable process to recycle recovered materials from end-of-life tyres back into new tyre production. This includes the collection and selection of raw materials from ELT, as well as the optimisation of pyrolysis, oil refining and recycling. The Pyrum Innovations AG team focuses on the further development and adaptation of the pyrolysis process on a laboratory and industrial scale. The aim is to obtain products with customised properties for ideal further utilisation with the highest possible quality from ELT.
