The 53 million tyres thrown away in Australia each year may become a valuable source of energy thanks to a company that has developed a commercially viable process for producing diesel oil from the rubber.
The process reduces the tyres to oil, steel, carbon black and methane gas. 100% of the material from the tyre can be resold.
Over a billion tyres a year are disposed of globally, most are illegally dumped on the edge of cities or deposited in land fill where they take 30,000 years to break down.
Current recycling programs mechanically reduce the tyre to create rubber particles used as playground and road surfaces.
The new process reduces the need for fossil fuel extraction and creates a fuel with a high energy rating, less nitrous dioxide and lower particle emissions.
Start-up company breathes new life into old tyres
A biofuel from old rubber tyres that can run turbo-charged diesel engines while reducing emissions by 30 per cent.’We have zero waste from the tyre’
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-28/new-life-for-old-tyres-as-biofuel/8064350
Every year the world produces over 1 billion used tyres. Only a small portion of these tyres are recycled. In Australia only 5% of used tyres go through a recycling process. 13% are dumped illegally, and the remaining 57% of tyres go to landfill. This is by far the worst option environmentally. Without sunlight a tyre takes up to 30,000 years to degrade.