Canadian pyrolysis plant due on stream early next year

ERJ staff report (DS)

Toronto, Ontario -- A plant under construction in Sault Ste. Marie will extract oil from used tyres, along with other valuable by-products, when it becomes operational early next year. The pilot plant is being built by Environmental Waste International Inc. EWI described the technology as reverse polymerisation.

Running at a planned recycling rate of about 300,000 tyres a year, the plant would produce some 240,000 US gallons (900 000 litres) of oil, 2 million pounds (900 tonnes) of a material described as carbon black, and 600,000 pounds (270 tonnes) of steel annually. Off-gases produced by the system will be used to co-generate electricity that allows the system to be energy self-sufficient.

The prototype EWS system being installed in the Sault is the TR-900. Models to be sold in the future will be larger. For example, the TR-6000 - the largest unit that EWS currently has on the drawing board - is designed to process 2 million used tyres a year and costs about $30 million.

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Press release from EWI