South Korean majors launch tire pyrolysis project

Gwangju City, South Korea - SK Energy, SK Networks have partnered with retread tire producer Daeho Industries to establish a waste-tire pyrolysis business, the Korean companies have announced.

On 15 April, the trio signed a business agreement at Daeho’s factory in Hanam industrial complex, Gwangju Metropolitan City to “push ahead” with the project.

Under the agreement, the partners will “review measures to improve the collection and supply system of waste tires in South Korea and assess the feasibility of the pyrolysis process that creates carbon black and pyrolysis oil.”

The three companies will check the potential of the establishment and operation of a pyrolysis oil plant in consideration of the growth prospect of a circular economy utilizing the waste tires.

Moreover, they plan to look further into several other measures to use the pyrolysis oil and the recovered carbon black (rCB) that are produced from pyrolyzing the waste tires.

SK Energy will mainly focus on ways to produce various products, such as eco-friendly naphtha and air fuel, by additionally refining the pyrolysis oil.

Meanwhile, Daeho Industries will lead on the development of measures to utilise the rCB, the partners noting rising demand for this product both inside and outside South Korea.

For its part, SK Networks will supply waste tires generated from approximately 650 business sites of its SpeedMate car-care service brand for the pyrolysis business.

SK Networks is also to create a business system “wherein it can co-exist and work together with the existing companies that collect waste tires.”

Each year, South Korea sees about 380 kilotonnes of waste tires, or around 30 million tires, much of which is processed as industrial solid-state fuel or reused as fillers or as recapped tires.

However, with natural rubber from waste tires now recognised as a ‘biogenic resource’, the partners said they aim to tap into rising global demand for eco-friendly products and energy sources, particularly recycled fuel oil.