Bridgestone advances waste tire pyrolysis project

Tokyo – Bridgestone Corp. has started the production of waste tire derived pyrolysis oil and recycled carbon black at its innovation park in Kodaira City, Tokyo.

The project is one of two R&D projects on waste tire recycling announced last February and supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO).

Launched in partnership with Eneos Corp. the initiative involves the installation of test units at for tire pyrolysis at the group’s innovation centre in Kodaira City, Tokyo.

The group, said Bridgestone in an 8 June statement, is currently “advancing verification tests” on the project.

The tests are examining technologies for achieving “high-yield production” of chemical products, such as butadiene, using Eneos’s oil refining technologies and “precision pyrolysis technologies” of Bridgestone.

Under the programme, large-scale verification tests will be advanced by 2030 with the goal to achieve mass production pyrolysis oil and recycled carbon black.

As announced in February last year, Bridgestone’s other project involving end-of-life tires (ELT) aims to recover isoprene, a key raw material for the production synthetic rubber, from waste tires.

In that project, the tire maker's partners are: the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tohoku University, energy group Eneos Corp. and JGC Holdings Corp.

The technology will aim to decompose ELTs at low temperatures and depolymerise them using a “specialised catalyst” technology.

Bridgestone will lead the project, offering its rubber R&D expertise and tire & rubber knowledge for the demonstration plants.

AIST, Tohoku University, and Eneos will be responsible for the development of chemical recycling technologies of used tires and the related evaluation technologies. JGC will be tasked with designing pilot plants.